"Good-evening." He beamed.
"So you did find it?" said Mrs Vernon, calmly smiling. "I felt sure it
would be all right."
"Oh, yes, m'm." He tried to persuade himself that this sublime
confidence was characteristic of great ladies, and a laudable symptom
of aristocracy. But he would have preferred her to be a little less
confident. After all, in the hands of a conductor less honourable than
himself, of a common conductor, the purse might not have been so "all
right" as all that! He would have preferred to witness the change on Mrs
Vernon's features from desperate anxiety to glad relief. After all, L50,
10s. was money, however rich you were!
"Have you got it with you?" asked Mrs Vernon.
"Yes'm," said he. "I thought I'd just step up with it myself, so as to
be sure."
"It's very good of you!"
"Not at all," said he; and he produced the purse. "I think you'll find
it as it should be."
Mrs Vernon gave him a courtly smile as she thanked him.
"I'd like ye to count it, ma'am," said Chadwick, as she showed no
intention of even opening the purse.
"If you wish it," said she, and counted her wealth and restored it to
the purse.
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