raise the
price at any time after 1st July. A consignment is expected from the
Baltic within the next fortnight."

The little clerk looked up. His glance inquired, "Is that all?"

"Wait a minute." His master seemed to be reflecting; then leaning back in
his chair and gripping its arms while he stared out of the bow-window
before him, he resumed his dictation--

"I hope to be in Plymouth on Wednesday next, and that you will hold
yourself ready for a call between two and three in the afternoon at
your office."

"I beg your pardon, sir," the clerk interposed, "but Mr. Samuel closes
early on Wednesdays.

"I know it. Go on, please--

"I have some matters to discuss alone with you, and they may take a
considerable time. Kindly let me know by return if the date
suggested is inconvenient."

"That will do." He held out his hand for the paper, and signed it,
"Yours truly, John Rosewarne," while the clerk addressed the envelope.
This concluded their day's work.

Rosewarne pulled out his watch, consulted it, and fell again to staring
out of the open window. A climbing Banksia rose overgrew the sill and ran
up the mullions, its clusters of nankeen buds stirred by the breeze and
nodding against the pale sunset sky. Beyond the garden lay a small
orchard fringed with elms; and below this the slope fell so steeply down
to the harbourthat the elm-tops concealed its shipping and all but the
chimney-smoke of a busy little town on its farther shore. High over this
smoke the rooks were trailing westward and homeward.

Rosewarne heard the clank of mallets in a shipbuilding yard below.
Then five o'clock struck from the church tower across the water, and the
mallets ceased; but far down by the harbour's mouth the crew of a
foreign-bound ship sang at the windlass--

Good-bye, fare-ye-well--Good-bye, fare-ye-well!

[In the original text a short length of musical score is shown]

The vessel belonged to him. He controlled most of the shipping and a good
half of the harbour's trade. As for the town at his feet, had you
examined his ledgers you might fancy its smoke ascending to him as
incense. He sat with his strong hand resting on the arms of his chair,
with the last gold of daylight touching his white hair and the lines of
his firm, clean-shaven face, and overlooked his local world and his
possessions. If they brought him happiness, he did not smile.

He aroused himself with a