Page:What Will He Do With It? - Routledge - Volume 2.djvu/29



"Poole," answered Hartopp. "Who is he, sir? A speculative man. He is connected with a new Company--I am told it answers. Williams (that's my foreman--a very long head he has too) has taken shares in the Company, and wanted me to do the same, but 'tis not in my way. And Mr. Poole may be a very honest man, but he does not impress me with that idea. I have grown careless; I know I am liable to be taken in--I was so once--and therefore I avoid 'Companies' upon principle--especially when they promise thirty per cent., and work copper mines--Mr. Poole has a copper mine."

"And deals in brass--you may see it in his face! But you are not in town for good, Mr. Hartopp? If I remember right, you were settled at Gatesboro' when we last met."

"And so I am still--or rather in the neighbourhood. I am gradually retiring from business, and grown more and more fond of farming. But I have a family, and we live in enlightened times, when children require a finer education than their parents had. Mrs. Hartopp thought my daughter Anna Maria was in need of some 'finishing lessons'--very fond of the harp is Anna Maria--and so we have taken a house in London for six weeks. That's Mrs. Hartopp yonder, with the bird on her head--bird of paradise, I believe; Williams says birds of that kind never rest. That bird is an exception--it has rested on Mrs. Hartopp's head for hours together, every evening since we have been in town."

"Significant of your connubial felicity, Mr. Hartopp."

"May it be so of Anna Maria' s. She is to be married when her education is finished--married, by the by, to a son of your old friend Jessop, of Ouzelford; and between you and me, Mr. Darrell, that is the reason why I consented to come to town. Do not suppose that I would have a daughter finished unless there was a husband at hand who undertook to be responsible for the results."

"You retain your wisdom, Mr. Hartopp; and I feel sure that not even your fair partner could have brought you up to London unless you had decided on the expediency of coming. Do you remember that I told you the day you so admirably settled a dispute in our committee-room, 'it was well you were not born a king, for you would have been an irresistible tyrant'?"

"Hush! hush!"