"I know you are," said Bence cordially. "She has said so a hundred times."

"Tell me how it began--the very beginning of things."

A gloomy cloud pa.s.sed over Bence's animated face.

"Upon my word, I don't care to look back upon those days. I _was_ in such bitter trouble, Mr. Prentice."

"When did you think of going to her?"

"I never thought of it. _She_ came to me. I couldn't believe my ears when she opened the matter."

"What did she say?"

"Oh, she didn't beat about the bush. She said, if it was really true that I wanted money, she might supply it--on certain terms."

"Yes, yes--and tell me, my dear fellow, what were her terms?"

"Mr. Prentice," said Bence solemnly, "her terms were terrible--it was just buying me at a knock-out price."

"You don't say so?"

"The fact.... This is as between Masons, isn't it?... I may consider that we are tiled in."

"Yes, yes--as brother to brother."

And then Bence, who was never averse to hearing the sound of his own voice when safe and suitable occasions offered, talked with unchecked freedom and confidence.

"You know, I'd always entertained the highest and most genuine respect for her. When they used to say she was the best man of business in Mallingbridge, there was no one more ready to admit it than I was. I regarded her as right up there," and he waved his hand towards the ceiling. "Right up--one of the largest and most comprehensive int'lects of the age."

"Just so--just so."

"And I don't mind confessing I was always a bit afraid of her. Years ago--oh, I don't know how many years ago--when I was pa.s.sing compliments to her, she'd look at me, not a bit unkind, but inscrutable--yes, that's it--inscrutable, and say, 'You take care, Mr. Bence. Don't jump too big, or one day you'll jump over yourself.'"

"Meaning your various extensions?"

"Yes. It always made me uncomfortable when she spoke like that--though I just laughed it off. Anyhow, it seemed to show how clear she saw through one."

"Yes, nothing escaped her."

"So I thought I knew what she was--but I never did really know what she was, till we came to fair handy grips over this.... Mr. Prentice, I flattered her--no go. I tried to bluff her--ditto. Then I sued to her for mercy. I said, 'Madam, I'm like a wounded man on a field of battle asking for a cup of water.' But she said, 'If I understand the position correctly, Mr. Bence, you are more like a dead man; and you ask to be brought to life again.'... And it was true. I was dead--down--done for....

"It was my brothers--G.o.d forgive them--who had frustrated me--not bad luck--or any faults of mine. Take, take, take--whatever my work produced, out it went.... Well then, I was what she described--lying at her feet, and praying for life. So I said I'd take it--on her own terms....

"But when it was over, oh, Mr. Prentice the relief! I had lit'rally come to life again. I was _safe_--with money behind me,--with _driving_ power behind me. I went home that night to Mrs. Bence and cried as if I'd been a baby--and after I'd had my cry, I _slept_. What's that proverb? Sleep, it is a blessed thing! I hadn't slept sound for years. Don't you see? I was certain we should go on all right now--now that the burden was on _her_ shoulders."

And then Bence had his idiosyncratic touch of self-pity.

"I don't know whether you were aware of it, Mr. Prentice--these things get about when one is more or less a public man,--but the incessant worry had given me kidney disease. Well,--will you believe it?--from that hour I got better. The doctors reported less,--less again,--and at last, not a trace of it. I was simply another man."

"But, Bence, my dear fellow, what fills me with such amazement and admiration is the rapidity of your success from that point. You seemed to be on the crest of the wave instantaneously."

"Ah! That was the magician's wand. Instead of having our earnings s.n.a.t.c.hed out the moment they reached the till, the profits were being put back into the concern. I was working on a salary--a very handsome one--with my commission; and she never took out a penny more than was absolutely necessary. There was the whole difference--and it's magic in trade. I was given scope, capital, an easy road--with no blind turnings."

"But I suppose you did it all under her direction?"

"Well, I don't know how to answer that;" and Bence grinned, and twirled his moustache. "No. I suppose I ought to say no. I had full scope--and was never interfered with.... We used to meet at Hyde & Collins's; and I reported things--just reported them. She used to look at me in that inscrutable way of hers, and say, 'I can't advise. I have nothing to do with your business--beyond having my money in it: just as I might have it in any other form of investment. But speaking merely as an outsider, I think you are going on very nice. Go on just the same, Mr. Bence.'

Sometimes she did drop a word. It was always light.... Oh, she's unique, Mr. Prentice--quite unique."

Bence grinned more broadly as he went on.

"Of course it was by her orders--or I ought to say, it was acting on a hint she let fall, that I made myself so popular with the authorities.

You never came to one of my dinner-parties?... No, I did ask you; but you wouldn't come.... Well, you're acquainted with Mallingbridge oratory. After dinner, when the speeches began, they used to b.u.t.ter me up to the skies; and I used to tell them straight--though of course they couldn't see it--that I was only a figure-head, a dummy. 'Don't praise _me_,' I told 'em, 'I'm n.o.body--just the outward sign of the enterprise and spirit that lays behind me.' Yes, and I put it straighter than that sometimes--it tickled me to give 'em the truth almost in the plainest words.... And I knew there was no risk. _They_'d never tumble to it."

After this delightful conversation, Mr. Prentice went across the road again. He felt that he could not any longer refrain from calling upon Mrs. Marsden; and, as the afternoon was now well advanced, he thought that she might perhaps invite him to drink a cup of tea with her.

In St. Saviour's Court the house door stood open; men from Bence's Furniture department were busily delivering chairs and sofas; and the narrow pa.s.sage was obstructed by further goods. Mr. Prentice heard a familiar voice issuing instructions with a sharp tone of command.

"This is for the top floor. Front bedroom. Take this up too--same room.... Who's that out there? Oh, is it you, Mr. Prentice?"

"What, Yates, you are soon on duty again."

Old Yates laughed and tossed her head. "Yes, sir, here I am.... That's for the top floor--back. Take it up steady, now."

"You seem to be refurnishing--and on a large scale."

"Oh, no," said Yates. "We're only putting things straight. We're expecting Mrs. Kenion and the young lady up from Eastbourne to-night--and it's a job to get the house ready in the time."

"Ah, then I am afraid visitors will hardly be welcome just now."

"No, sir, not ordinary visitors--but Mrs. Thompson never counted you as an ordinary visitor--did she, sir? I'll take on me to say _you_'ll be welcome to Mrs. Thompson. Please go upstairs, sir. She's in the dining-room."

And truly this visitor was welcomed most cordially.

"My _dear_ Mr. Prentice. How kind of you--how very kind of you to come!

I have been wishing so to see you."

Yates without delay disengaged herself from the furniture men, and brought in tea. Then the hostess seated herself at the table, and insisted that the visitor should occupy the easiest of the new armchairs--and she smiled at him, she waited upon him, she made much of him; she lulled and soothed and charmed him, until he felt as if twenty years had rolled away, and he and she were back again in the happiest of the happy old days.

"I trust that dear Mrs. Prentice is well.... Ah, yes, it _is_ headachy weather, isn't it. I have ventured to send her a few flowers--and some peaches and grapes."

It seemed incredible. But she _looked_ younger--many years younger than when he had seen her in the shadow cast by his office wall less than a week ago. Her voice had something of the old resonance; she sat more upright; she carried her head better. She was still dressed in black; but this new costume was of fine material, fashionable cut, very becoming pattern; and it gave to its wearer a quiet importance and a sedate but opulent pomp. Very curious! It was as if all that impression of shabbiness, insignificance, and poverty had been caused merely by the shadow; and that as soon as she came out of the shadow into the sunlight, one saw her as she really was, and not as one had foolishly imagined her to be.

This thought was in the mind of Mr. Prentice while he listened to her pleasantly firm voice, and watched the play of light and life about her kind and friendly eyes. The shadow that had lain so heavy upon her was mercifully lifted. She had been a prisoner to the powers of darkness, and now the sunshine had set her free. This was really all that had happened.

"I am so particularly glad," she was saying, "that you came to-day, because I want your advice badly."

"It is very much at your service."

"Then do you think there would be any objection--would you consider it might seem bad taste if henceforth I were to resume my old name? I have an affection for the name of Thompson--though it isn't a very high-sounding one."