"Damned clumsy of you!" growled Heyton. "I'm in a beast of a mess!

Where's a cloth?"

"Pray take my handkerchief, my lord," said Mr. Jacobs, offering it.

At this moment, Celia entered the room. She would have drawn back at

sight of the two men; but Heyton called to her over his shoulder.

"Hi! Have you got a cloth? The ink's upset----"

She ran to a drawer and took out a clean duster; and Heyton, swearing

under his breath, wiped the remainder of the ink from his fingers.

"I'd better go and wash it," he said; and he went out of the room.

"Tut, tut!" said Mr. Jacobs. "It was my fault, Miss Grant. I was

Advertisement..

reaching for the ink, to bring it nearer his lordship, when my sleeve or

something caught the corner of the desk here and, before you could say

'Jack Robinson,' the mischief was done."

He seemed so greatly distressed and upset by the accident, that Celia

quite felt for him.

"Oh, it is not a very great matter," she said, soothingly. "There has

been no harm done."

Indeed, it did seem to her a very trivial affair, compared with the

awful tragedy in which they were moving. "I will get a cloth and wipe up

the ink; fortunately, it hasn't run on to the carpet."

As she spoke, she took up the sheets of writing-paper and blotting paper

between her finger and thumb, intending to put them in the waste-paper

basket; but, with a kind of apologetic laugh, Mr. Jacobs laid his hand

on her arm, and said: "No, don't throw them away! Give them to me, if you will. I should like

to keep them as a kind of memento, as a sort of warning for the future

not to be so clumsy."

With a shadow of a smile, she gave the two pieces of paper to him, and

as he took them he said, "I've got my own fingers inked. Serve me right. I'll go and wash my

hands. Really, I shall never forgive myself! No wonder his lordship was

angry."

"Was he?" said Celia, absently. "Yes; he was. But you must remember Lord

Heyton is very much upset; when one's nerves are on the rack, the least

thing, trifling though it may be----"

"Quite so; quite so," said Mr. Jacobs, with a nod of comprehension.

He was still so much upset by the accident, that he forgot to wash his

hands and went straight to his sitting-room, still carrying the two

sheets of paper, the evidences of his inexcusable clumsiness.




Most Popular