She patted his hand.
"Is the speculation going all right?" she asked.
"I am hoping to get the money together this week," he replied.
"If I get it, I shall be well off in a year, rich in five years."
"There is just a doubt about your getting it, then?" she
inquired.
"Just a doubt," he admitted. "I have a solicitor who is doing
his best to raise a loan, but I have not heard from him for two
days. Then I have also a friend who has promised it to me, a
friend upon whom I am not quite sure if I can rely."
They turned into the Strand.
"Tell me about my father, Leonard," she begged.
He hesitated; it was hard to know exactly how to speak of the
professor.
"Perhaps if you have talked with him at all," she went on, "it
will help you to understand one of the difficulties I had to face
in life."
"He is, I should imagine, a little weak," Tavernake suggested,
hesitatingly.
"Very," she answered. "My mother left him in my charge, but I
cannot keep him."
"Your sister--" he began.
She nodded.
"My sister has more influence than I. She makes life easier for
him."
They reached the restaurant and made their way upstairs.
Tavernake appropriated the same table and once more the head
waiter protested.
"If the gentleman comes again to-night," Tavernake said, "you
will find that he will be only too glad to have supper with us."
Then the professor came. He made his usual somewhat theatrical
entrance, carrying his broad-brimmed hat in his hand, brandishing
his silver-topped cane.
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