"Yes," rejoined Derrick, with a laugh. "And it's the most important one

in the language nowadays. Comfort is the one thing everybody goes for;

we've made it our tin god, and we worship it all the time; it's because

money means comfort that we're all out for it."

"And yet you are poor," said her Excellency, musingly. "And you are

happy?"

There was a note of interrogation in her voice, and Derrick checked a

sigh as he shrugged his shoulders, a trick which everybody about the

place possessed, and he was acquiring unconsciously; he was dreading

that, in time, he should come to spread out his hands and gesticulate

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like the rest of them.

"Count no man happy till he's dead," he said, a trifle wistfully; and,

at that moment, the scene before him, fair as it was, assumed a dreary

aspect, and he longed for the grimy London streets, the hustle of the

crowd, the smell of the asphalt; and, above all, the stone staircase and

the gaol-like corridors of Brown's Buildings. "At any rate, if I'm not

happy, it is not your fault, Donna Elvira. Owing to your kindness, I

have fallen on clover--pardon! I mean that I've got an excellent

situation. And, speaking of that, I'm very glad to see you. I'm afraid

you'll think I'm a nuisance, and that, like a new broom, I want to sweep

everything clean; but I'm obliged to tell you that the machinery you've

got out there is played out, and that it is absolutely necessary to have

a new plant. It will cost you a great deal of money, and I don't know

where it is to come from--straight from England, I suppose."

She made a movement of her hand, indicating what seemed to Derrick

sublime indifference.

"It shall be as you say," she said. "You have been working very hard, is

it not? Oh, I have seen you coming from the shed; you looked tired and

so----Is it necessary, señor, to get so dirty?"

"'Fraid it is," said Derrick, with a laugh; "the worst of it is, the

machinery is even dirtier than I am. 'Pon my word, I don't believe it's

had a good over-haul for years."

"Possibly," said Donna Elvira, absently. "The last man who had charge of

it was too fond of the wine."

"I can believe it," said Derrick; "anyway, he kept his machinery thirsty

enough. What shall I do about it?"

She pondered for a moment or two; then, with a sudden raising of her sad

eyes, she said, slowly, "It must come from England, you said. It is possible to order it from

thence?"




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