Mr. Jansenius was a man of imposing presence, not yet in his fiftieth
year, but not far from it. He moved with dignity, bearing himself as if
the contents of his massive brow were precious. His handsome aquiline
nose and keen dark eyes proclaimed his Jewish origin, of which he was
ashamed. Those who did not know this naturally believed that he was
proud of it, and were at a loss to account for his permitting his
children to be educated as Christians. Well instructed in business,
and subject to no emotion outside the love of family, respectability,
comfort, and money, he had maintained the capital inherited from his
father, and made it breed new capital in the usual way. He was a banker,
and his object as such was to intercept and appropriate the immense
saving which the banking system effects, and so, as far as possible, to
leave the rest of the world working just as hard as before banking was
introduced. But as the world would not on these terms have banked at
all, he had to give them some of the saving as an inducement. So they
profited by the saving as well as he, and he had the satisfaction
of being at once a wealthy citizen and a public benefactor, rich in
comforts and easy in conscience.
He entered the room quickly, and his wife saw that something had vexed
him.
“Do you know what has happened, Ruth?” he said.
“Yes. She is upstairs.”
Mr. Jansenius stared. “Do you mean to say that she has left already?” he
said. “What business has she to come here?”
“It is natural enough. Where else should she have gone?”
Mr. Jansenius, who mistrusted his own judgment when it differed from
that of his wife, replied slowly, “Why did she not go to her mother?”
Mrs. Jansenius, puzzled in her turn, looked at him with cool wonder, and
remarked, “I am her mother, am I not?”
“I was not aware of it. I am surprised to hear it, Ruth. Have you had a
letter too. I have seen the letter. But what do you mean by telling
me that you do not know I am Henrietta’s mother? Are you trying to be
funny?”
“Henrietta! Is she here? Is this some fresh trouble?”
“I don’t know. What are you talking about?”
“I am talking about Agatha Wylie.”
“Oh! I was talking about Henrietta.”
“Well, what about Henrietta?”
“What about Agatha Wylie?”
At this Mr. Jansenius became exasperated, and he deemed it best to
relate what Henrietta had told her. When she gave him Trefusis’s letter,
he said, more calmly: “Misfortunes never come singly. Read that,” and
handed her another letter, so that they both began reading at the same
time.
Mrs. Jansenius read as follows:
“Alton College, Lyvern.
“To Mrs. Wylie, Acacia Lodge, Chiswick.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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