Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 1.djvu/86

72 was important he should feel: "Don't you see what it is for a poor girl to have such an anchorage as this—such honourable countenance, such a place to fall back upon?"

Thus challenged, her visitor, with a moment's thought, did frank justice to her question. "I'm certainly glad you've such jolly friends—one sees they're charming people. It has been a great comfort to me lately to know you were with them." He looked round him, conscientiously, at the bright and beautiful hall. "It is a good berth, my dear, and it must be a pleasure to live with such fine things. They've given me a room up there that's full of them—an awfully nice room." He glanced at a picture or two—he took in the scene. "Do they roll in wealth?"

"They're like all bankers, I imagine," said Rose. "Don't bankers always roll?"

"Yes, they seem literally to wallow. What a pity we ain't bankers, eh?"

"Ah, with my friends here their money's the least part of them," the girl answered. "The great thing's their personal goodness."

Dennis had stopped before a large photograph, a