Part 10

“Why won’t you come?”

“Well, the fact is, I haven’t time. I shall have to wait to get a little richer before I can afford it. Besides I have a standing engagement.”

“Oh! no, we won’t squeeze you. I tell you what, come up to dinner to-morrow. I’m going to have a fellow there, an awfully rich fellow--want to interest him in some things, and I’ve invited him down. He is young Router, the son of the great Router, you know who he is?”

“Well, no, I don’t believe I do. Good-by. Sorry I can’t come; but I have an engagement.”

“What is it?”

“To play mumble-the-peg with some boys: Haile Tabb’s boys.”

“Oh! hang the boys! Come up to dinner. It is an opportunity you may not have again shortly. Router’s awfully successful, and you can interest him. I tell you what I’ll do----”

“No, thank you, I’ll keep my engagement. Good-by.”

“That fellow’s either a fool or he is crazy,” said his friend, gazing after him as he walked away. “And he’s got some sense too. If he’d let me use him I could make money out of him for both of us.”

It was not long before Floyd began to be known more widely. He had schemes for the amelioration of the condition of the poor. They were pronounced quixotic; but he kept on. He said he got good out of them if no one else did.

He began to go oftener and oftener down to the City, where Miss Dangerlie lived. He did not see a great deal of her; but he wrote to her. He found in her a ready sympathy with his plans. It was not just as it used to be in his earlier love affair, where he used to find himself uplifted and borne along by the strong spirit which had called him from the dead; but if it was not this that he got, it was what contented him. Whatever he suggested, she accepted. He found in her tastes a wonderful similarity with his, and from that he drew strength.

Women in talking of him in connection with her said it was a pity; men said he was lucky.

One evening, at a reception at her house, he was in the gentlemen’s dressing-room. It was evidently a lady’s apartment which had been devoted for the occasion as a dressing-room. It was quite full at the time. A man, a large fellow with sleek, short hair, a fat chin, and a dazzling waistcoat, pulled open a lower drawer in a bureau. Articles of a lady’s apparel were discovered, spotless and neatly arranged. “Shut that drawer instantly,” said Floyd, in a low, imperious tone.

“Suppose I don’t, what then?”

“I will pitch you out of that window,” said Floyd, quietly, moving a step nearer to him. The drawer was closed, and the man turned away.

“Do you know who that was?” asked someone of Floyd.

“No, not the slightest idea.”

“That was young Router, the son of the great Router.”

“Who is the-great-Router?”

“The great pork man. His son is the one who is so attentive to Miss Dangerlie.”

“I am glad he closed the drawer,” said Floyd, quietly.

“He is said to be engaged to her,” said the gentleman.

“He is not engaged to her,” said Floyd.

Later on he was talking to Miss Dangerlie. He had taken her out of the throng. “Do you know who introduced me to you?” he asked.

“Yes, Mrs. Drivington.”

“No, a little girl.”

“Who? Why, don’t you remember! I am surprised. It was just in the doorway!”

“Oh! yes, I remember well enough. I met a beauty there, but I did not care for her. I met you first on the stairway, and a child introduced me.”