If good wishes could help, how you would flourish I Is it
orthodox to pray for a friend's success in business?"
"Why not? Provided you add--so long as he is guilty of no
rascality."
"That, _you_ will never be."
"Why, to tell you the truth, I shouldn't know how to go about it.
Not everyone who wishes becomes a rascal in business. It's difficult
enough for me to pursue commerce on the plain, honest track; knavery
demands an expertness altogether beyond me. Wherefore, let us give
thanks for my honest stupidity!"
They chatted a while of these things. Then Piers, grasping his
courage, uttered what was burning within him.
"When is Miss Derwent to be married?"
Mrs. Hannaford's eyes escaped his hard look. She murmured that no
date had yet been settled.
"Tell me--I beg you will tell me--is her engagement absolutely
certain?"
"I feel sure it is."
"No! I want more than that. Do you know that it is?"
"I can only say that her father believes it to be a certain thing.
No announcement has yet been made."
"H'm! Then it isn't settled at all."
Piers sat stiffly upon his chair. He held an ivory paperknife, which
he kept bending across his knee, and of a sudden the thing snapped
in two. But he paid no attention, merely flinging the handle away.
Mrs. Hannaford looked him in the face; he was deeply flushed; his
lips and his throat trembled like those of a child on the point of
tears.
Pages:
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235