s how much he isn't worth I Father
is always saying he could buy _us_ up, lock, stock, and barrel." Janet
laughed. "People often call him a miser, but he can't be so much of a
miser, seeing that he's built this new house."

"And I suppose the son's in the business?"

"Yes. He wanted to be an architect. That was how father got to know him.
But old Mr. Clayhanger wouldn't have it. And so he's a printer, and one
day he'll be one of the principal men in the town."

"Oh! So you know him?"

"Well, we do and we don't. I go into the shop sometimes; and then I've
seen him once or twice up at the new house. We've asked him to come in
and see us. But he's never come, and I don't think he ever will. I
believe his father does keep him grinding away rather hard. I'm sure
he's frightfully clever."

"How can you tell?"

"Oh! From bits of things he says. And he's read everything, it seems!
And once he saved a great heavy printing-machine from going through the
floor of the printing-shop into the basement. If it hadn't been for him
there'd have been a dreadful accident. Everybody was talking about that.
He doesn't look it, does he?"

They were now passing the corner at which stood the shop. Hilda peered
within the narrowing, unshuttered slit, but she could see no more of
Edwin Clayhanger.

"No, he doesn't," she agreed, while thinking nevertheless that he did
look precisely that. "And so he lives all alone with his father. No
mother?"

"No mother. But there are two sisters. The youngest is married, and just
going to have a baby, poor thing! The other one keeps house. I believe
she's a splendid girl, but neither of them is a bit like Edwin. Not a
bit. He's--"

"What?"

"I don't know. Look here, miss! What about this rain? I vote we take the
car up the hill."

IV

The steam-car was rumbling after them down Duck Bank. It stopped, huge
above them, and they climbed into it through an odour of warm grease
that trailed from the engine. The conductor touched his hat to Janet,
who smiled like a sister upon this fellow-being. Two middle-aged men
were the only other occupants of the interior of the car; both raised
their hats to Janet. The girls sat down in opposite corners next to the
door. Then, with a deafening continuous clatter of loose glass-panes and
throbbing of its filthy floor, the vehicle started again, elephantine.
It was impossible to talk in that unique din. Hilda had no desire to
talk. She watched Janet pay the fa