Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/79

Rh at least one person in that apartment who was heartily glad to be rid of her.

When the door had closed upon them my host came back to his seat, and with another sigh refilled my glass. I wondered what was coming now. It was not long, however, before I found out.

"Now you know everything! You have seen my home, you have seen my poverty, and you have seen my daughter. What do you think of it all?"

"I don't know what to think!"

"Well, then I'll tell you. That child wants doctors; that child wants proper attendance. She can get neither here. I am too poor to help her in any way. You're rich by your own telling. I have to-day taken you into the bosom of my family, recognised you without doubting your assertions. Will you help me? Will you give one thousand pounds towards settling that child in life? With two thousand it could be managed?"

"Will I what?" I cried in utter amazement—dumbfounded by his impudence.

"Will you settle one thousand pounds upon her, to keep her out of her grave?"

"Not one penny!" I cried; "you miserable, miserly old wretch. And, what's more, I'll give you a bit of my mind."

And thereupon I did! Such a talking to as he'd never had in his life before, and one he'd not be likely to forget in a hurry. He sat all the time, white with fury, his eyes blazing, and his fingers quivering with impotent rage. When I had done he ordered me out of his house. I took him at his word, seized my hat, and strode across the hall through the front door, and out into the open air.