"I daresay," Josiah looked very dour. "But I'll tell you this. I'm main glad I got out of all my Continental investments a year last March." The solicitor had to own that that was a matter in which his client had shown uncommon foresight. The present state of the market was a remarkable vindication of his sagacity. There was another little pause in which the solicitor, himself an able man of business, could not help reflecting upon the native shrewdness of this client so keen, so hardheaded, so self-willed. And then it was broken by Mr. Munt taking a step towards the door and saying, "When are you and the wife and daughter coming to see us, Mossop? Come to a meal one evening, won't you?" The invitation was point blank; but behind the lawyer's genial courtesy was the trained fencer, the ready-witted man of the world. "Most kind of you," he said heartily. "Only too delighted, but, unfortunately, my womenfolk are going up to Scotland to-morrow"--he gave private thanks to Allah that it was so!--"and I follow on Saturday, so perhaps if we may leave it till our return"--the solicitor raised his frank and ready smile to the stern eyes. "Quite so, Mossop!" The client frowned a little. "Leave it open. But I'd like you to see the house. And Mrs. M. would like to know your wife and daughter." "They'll like to know her, I'm sure." The air of sincerity was balm. "But they've been so busy gadding about just lately"--the laugh was charming--"that they've had to neglect their social duties." Josiah was far too elemental to feel slighted, even if the lawyer had not been so disarming. "But you people here on The Rise have the name of being a stuck-up lot, especially some of you old standards. And I'm bound to say, Mossop, my experience is that you seem to live up to it." Lawyer Mossop laughed his soft rich note as he followed Mr. Munt across the hall. He opened the front door for his client, and then, hatless as he was, accompanied the visitor down the short drive as far as the gate. "Nice things here, Mossop," Josiah pointed to the flower beds on either side. "That a Charlotte Fanning?" A finger indicated a glorious white rose whose dazzling purity of color stood out beyond all the rest. Mr. Mossop said it was a Charlotte Fanning. "Not sure you are going to beat mine, though." Mr. Mossop said modestly that he did not expect to do that. Mr. Munt had long been famous for his roses; and by comparison the lawyer declared he was but a novice. The client was flattered considerably by the compliment. At the gate, the proprietor of the Duke of Wellington pointed to the distant gables of Strathfieldsaye, and said, "Well, come round when you get back. The garden won't be much of a show for twelve months yet, but the house is first class. I designed it myself." With the winning charm which even Josiah, who felt that he paid for it on the High Court scale could not resist, Mr. Mossop promised that he would come round when he got back.