"Miss Bultiwell," Jacob said calmly, as he rose to his feet, "I understand that you desire information respecting the Cropstone Wood Estates. I am Chairman of the Company and entirely at your service."

She hesitated for a moment, then shrugged her shoulders, swung across the room, and threw herself into the client's chair with a touch of that insolent grace which he had always so greatly admired.

"I had no idea whom I was coming to see," she told him.

"Or you would not have come?"

"I most certainly should not."

The light died from his eyes. He felt the chill of her cold, contemptuous tone.

"Can you not remember," he suggested, "that you are here to see an official connected with the Cropstone Wood Estates Company and forget the other a.s.sociation?"

"I shall try," she agreed. "If I had not made up my mind to do that, I should have walked straight out of your office directly I recognised you."

"You will pardon my saying," he ventured, "that I consider your att.i.tude unnecessarily censorious."

She ignored his remark and turned to the business in hand.

"My mother and I," she said, "have of course left the Manor House. We are in lodgings now and looking for a permanent abode near London. The idea of a residence at Cropstone Wood appeals to my mother. She has friends in the neighborhood."

Jacob inclined his head.

"I a.s.sure you the Estate is everything that we claim for it."

"Most of the enquiries I have made have been satisfactorily answered,"

she admitted. "I have found only one person who has had any criticism to make. He says that, before buying property there, one ought to have definite information about the water and lighting."

"He is a very sensible man," Jacob agreed.

"I have come here to ask about them."

"The water and lighting," Jacob announced, "will be undertaken by the Cropstone Wood, Water and Electric Light Company, a private enterprise close at hand. The charges will be normal and the supply adequate."

"Thank you," the girl said. "If you are sure of that it is all I came to ascertain."

She rose to her feet. Jacob was desperately unwilling to let her go.

"Any direct transactions, of course, are undertaken with the city office," he explained, "but if you will accept a letter from me to the manager, he will see that your application is promptly dealt with, and that you have all the choice of site that is possible. There is, as you may know, a great demand for the land."

"Thank you," she replied, "I will not trouble you."

"Then again," he went on, "there is the question of whether you want simply to buy the land and employ your own builder, or place the contract with Littleham, who has an office on the Estate. My advice to you would be to go to Littleham. He can show you a dozen plans of various sized residences, he has a stock of material close at hand--"

"I am very much obliged," she interrupted. "My mother and I have already decided upon one of Mr. Littleham's cottages. It was simply because we found his answers as regards the water and electric lighting a little indefinite, that I decided to come to you."

"Indefinite?" Jacob murmured.

"Yes. He told us that the water and lighting were to be supplied by the private company you spoke of, but he seemed to have no idea as to what price they would be likely to charge."

Jacob inclined his head thoughtfully.

"I think you may rest a.s.sured," he told her, "that the charge will be normal."

She turned away.

"You have given me the information I require," she said. "Thank you once more, and good morning."

Jacob lost his head for a moment. It was impossible to let her drift away like this.

"Miss Bultiwell," he protested, "you are very hard on me. I wish you would allow me a few words of explanation. Will you--will you lunch with me?"

She looked him up and down, and not even the consciousness of those well-chosen and suitable clothes, of his very handsome bachelor flat at the Milan, his wonderful Rolls-Royce, and his summer retreat at Marlingden, with its acre of roses, helped him to retain an atom of self-confidence. He was no longer the man to whom the finger of envy pointed. The glance withered him as though he had indeed been a criminal.

"Certainly not," she answered.

She made her way towards the door, and Jacob watched her helplessly.

In her plain tweed coat and skirt, her sensible but homely shoes, her cheap little grey tam-o'-shanter hat, with its single yellow quill, she was just as attractive as she had been in the days when the first modiste in London had taken a pride in dressing her. She reached the door and pa.s.sed out before Jacob had been able to make up his mind to step forward and open it for her. He gazed at the spot where she had disappeared, with blank face and unseeing eyes. Suddenly the door was reopened and closed again. She came towards him very deliberately.

"Mr. Pratt," she said, "I am a very selfish and a very greedy person.

I have lunched most days, for the last three months, at an A. B. C.

shop opposite the office where I am working, and I hate the food and everything about that sort of place. If I accept your invitation, will you allow me to order exactly what I please, and remember that it is sheer greed which induces me even to sit down in the same room with you?"

Jacob sighed as he rose and stretched out his hand for his hat.

"Come on any terms you please," he answered, with eager humility.

CHAPTER VIII

Miss Sybil Bultiwell showed that she had a very pretty taste in food even if her weaknesses in other directions were undiscoverable. Seated at a table for two in Jacob's favourite corner at the Ritz grill-room, she ordered langouste with mayonnaise, a French chicken with salad, an artichoke, a vanilla ice, and some wonderful forced strawberries. She drank a c.o.c.ktail and shared to a moderate extent the bottle of very excellent dry champagne which her companion insisted upon. The aloofness of her general att.i.tude was naturally modified a little, in deference to appearances, but at no time did she give Jacob the slightest hope of breaking down the barrier of icy reserve with which she had chosen to surround herself. He made one great effort about midway through the meal.

"Miss Bultiwell," he said, "when I visited once at the Manor House--the first time it was, I think--you were very kind to me."

"I have forgotten the circ.u.mstance."

"I have not. I never could. I remember that I arrived on a bicycle, very hot and somewhat--er--inappropriately dressed. Your father, who had invited me over because at that time I was a useful business connection, took no particular pains to set me at my ease. I was very uncomfortable. You were exceedingly kind to me that evening."

"Was I?" she asked indifferently.

Jacob took a sip of champagne and went on valiantly.

"I had never met any one like you before. I have never met any one like you since. Why should you treat me as though I were something entirely contemptible, because I refused to accept your father's fraudulent balance sheet and put money into a ruined business?"

Sybil's blue eyes, which, as he knew, alas! too well, were capable of holding such sweet and tender lights, flashed upon him with a single moment's anger.