Faith followed obediently. He looked younger to-day, she thought, and better-looking! She wished with all her heart that Peg or some of the other girls could see her. They faced one another across a marble-topped table, and the man ordered tea and cakes.
"Are you hungry?" he asked. Faith shook her head; she was too pleased to be hungry.
She kept telling herself that, of course, it must be a dream. Under cover of the table she gave herself a hard pinch to make sure that she was really awake....
"You"re not eating anything," the man said, and she awoke with a start to realities.
"How old are you?" he asked, and she told him with fluttering haste, "I"m nineteen."
"Nineteen!" He raised his brows. "I should have said sixteen," he smiled. "How old do you think I am?"
She considered for a moment. "Forty?" she hazarded.
He laughed. "Not quite so bad; I"m six-and-thirty."
"Oh!" She looked at him gravely. "It"s not very old," she said kindly.
"Nearly twenty years older than you," he reminded her.
"Yes."
He went on: "I"ve lived abroad most of my life, and that ages a man, you know. I"ve slept under the sky for months at a time and never spoken to a living soul for weeks. I"ve starved and begged." He laughed. "Once I even robbed a man. But I paid him back when I got the money. Are you shocked?" he asked.
"Oh, no!" She thought him the most wonderful person she had ever met.
"Tell me something about yourself," said the Beggar Man abruptly.
She told him the little she knew--how that her father had been "a gentleman"; how his people had cast him off for marrying her mother; how that he had died three years ago, leaving them without a penny.
"And I work at Heeler"s," she added.
"Yes, you told me that yesterday. And they treat you--well?"
"Peg says it might be worse. Peg is my best friend and I love her," said Faith fervently.
"Lucky Peg!" said the Beggar Man.
Faith shook her head. "She doesn"t think she"s lucky," she answered seriously. "She"s always saying how unfair things are. She hates rich people and she hates Mr. Scammel, too! She says that she would like to murder him."
"And who is Scammel?" asked the Beggar Man.
"Heeler"s belongs to him," she told him. "He"s ever so rich, and he"s got a house in Park-lane and a place on the river, and a yacht and a car----"
"Anything else?" the man asked amusedly.
"Oh, yes, I expect so. Peg says he makes his money out of us, that he squeezes us dry to make himself rich. I think he must be something like the man who ruined my father," she added.
"Have some more cake?" said the Beggar Man.
"No, thank you."
Faith finished her tea and looked round the room. Hitherto she had only had eyes for her companion. The shop was not very full.
A girl at the next table was staring at her, and the girl in the cash desk by the door was staring, too. Faith flushed. Of course, they were both wondering what she was doing with this man, and once again the consciousness of her own shabbiness overwhelmed her.
"I think it"s time I went home," she said, and broke off sharply as the door swung open and Peg Fraser walked into the shop.
Faith hardly knew if she was glad or sorry to be so discovered. She gripped her hands hard.
Peg came slowly down between the tables, her eyes looking to right and left in search of a vacant seat; suddenly they fell upon Faith.
She made a quick little movement towards her; then stopped, staring.
Faith smiled nervously. She did not know why, but her heart seemed to stop beating, when Peg turned on her heel without a word or sign of recognition, and sat down at a table at the far end of the room.
The man had not noticed anything; he turned to ask for his bill.
Presently he looked up at Faith.
"We will go, if you really wish it," he said.
"Please." She followed him from the shop, not daring to raise her eyes to where Peg sat. Some strange emotion kept her from doing so.
Out in the street the sky had grown overcast. Heavy drops were spattering the pavement. "We"d better have a taxicab," the man said.
Faith stood on the kerb while he went in pursuit of a taxicab. It seemed wonderful to her that anybody should have so much money that a taxicab was an ordinary everyday luxury. It was raining steadily by the time they drove away. The man pulled up the window.
"My luck"s in," he said abruptly. "I wanted to speak to you and it would not have been possible if we had walked."
His grey eyes searched her wistful face doubtfully, then he went on again:
"I"ve taken a fancy to you. There"s something about you I like. I should be very pleased if with all my money I could do something to make your life happier. I"ve never seen your mother or the twins, but I should like to see them."
The colour rose slowly to Faith"s face. She was sure now that he was joking.
"Of course, you don"t mean it!" she said quiveringly.
"Don"t mean it? Good heavens!" The man laughed. "I do mean it, every word! When we were having tea just now I did a lot of thinking. I am a man who makes up his mind quickly and sticks to it. Now, look here, I"m going to make you an offer--without sentiment or any nonsense of that sort. I want a wife, and I want a girl who hasn"t been spoilt by the tomfoolery of the world. I want a girl I can mould to my own ideas. I"ll treat her well and be a good husband to a woman who could fancy me." He paused. "Well, what do you say?"
Faith was staring at him with wide eyes and parted lips. His astounding proposition had robbed her of speech. It was some seconds before she could gasp out, "What do you mean? What do you mean?"
"I mean," said the Beggar Man earnestly, "that I"d like to marry you, if you think you"d care about it."
It was many moments before Faith could find her voice; many moments before she could conquer the conviction that all this was a dream. Then she broke out, unconsciously using the words of Peg Fraser"s favourite e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n: "It"s like a novelette."
She really thought it was; she was breathless with astonishment, dazed with the unexpectedness of it all. The Beggar Man laughed.
"Is it? They always say that truth is stranger than fiction, don"t they?" He let down the window of the cab and thrust his head out, calling to the driver: