rsistently refused to hold any
intercourse with them. When, therefore, Mr Samuel Rubb was announced,
our heroine was somewhat inclined to seat herself upon a high horse.

Mr Samuel Rubb, junior, came upstairs, and was by no means the sort
of person in appearance that Miss Mackenzie had expected to see. In
the first place, he was, as well as she could guess, about forty
years of age; whereas she had expected to see a young man. A man who
went about the world especially designated as junior, ought, she
thought, to be very young. And then Mr Rubb carried with him an
air of dignity, and had about his external presence a something of
authority which made her at once seat herself a peg lower than she
had intended. He was a good-looking man, nearly six feet high, with
great hands and feet, but with a great forehead also, which atoned
for his hands and feet. He was dressed throughout in black, as
tradesmen always are in these days; but, as Miss Mackenzie said
to herself, there was certainly no knowing that he belonged to
the oilcloth business from the cut of his coat or the set of his
trousers. He began his task with great care, and seemed to have none
of the hesitation which had afflicted her brother in writing his
letter. The investment, he said, would, no doubt, be a good one. Two
thousand four hundred pounds was the sum wanted, and he understood
that she had that amount lying idle. Their lawyer had already seen
her lawyer, and there could be no doubt as to the soundness of the
mortgage. An assurance company with whom the firm had dealings was
quite ready to advance the money on the proposed security, and at
the proposed rate of interest, but in such a matter as that, Rubb
and Mackenzie did not wish to deal with an assurance company. They
desired that all control over the premises should either be in their
own hands, or in the hands of someone connected with them.

By the time that Mr Samuel Rubb had done, Miss Mackenzie found
herself to have dismounted altogether from her horse, and to be
pervaded by some slight fear that her lawyers might allow so
favourable an opportunity for investing her money to slip through
their hands.

Then, on a sudden, Mr Rubb dropped the subject of the loan, and Miss
Mackenzie, as he did so, felt herself to be almost disappointed. And
when she found him talking easily to her about matters of external
life, although she answered him readily, and talked to him also
easily, she entertained some