Starkey. Does it make you feel ashamed of me?'
'My dear sir! What business could be more honourable? I heartily wish I had
one as good and as lucrative.'
'Well, that's your kindness, sir,' said Wigmore, with a pleased smile. 'The
fact is, I have done pretty well, though I'm not by any means a rich man:
comfortable, that's all. I gave my girls a good schooling, and what with
that and their good looks, they've both made what may be called better
marriages than might have been expected. For down in our country, you know,
sir, a shopkeeper is one thing, and a gentleman's another. Now my girls
have married gentlemen.'
Again he paused, and with emphasis. Again Topham murmured, this time
congratulation.
'One of them is wife to a young solicitor; the other to a young gentleman
farmer. And they've both gone to live in another part of the country. I
dare say you understand that, Mr. Starkey?'
The speaker's eyes had fallen; at the same time a twitching of the brows
and hardening of the mouth changed the expression of his face, marking it
with an unexpected sadness, all but pain.
'Do you mean, Mr. Wigmore,' asked Topham, 'that your daughters desire to
live at a distance from you?'
'Well, I'm sorry to say that's what I do mean, Mr.
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