more or less to ask your advice and to put a small suggestion before ye.'
'What is't, then? Don't stand there like a hen on a hot griddle.'
Dron fumbled nervously with his cap. 'Mr. Brodie, I havena been doin' too well lately at my trade, and I really came in regarding that little property o' mine next door.'
Brodie looked up. 'You mean the tumble-down shop that's been empty these three months past. Who could help seeing it ? Man, it's an eyesore in the street.'
'I ken it's been empty a long time,' replied Dron meekly, 'but it's an asset in a way in fact, it's about the only asset I've got now and what wi' gettin' a bit desperate one way and another, an idea struck me that I thocht might interest you.'
'Indeed, now,' sneered Brodie, 'Is not that interestin'! Ye have the lang head on ye, sure enough, to get all these inspirations it'll be the Borough Council for ye next. Well! What is the great idea?'
'I was thinking,' returned the other diffidently, 'that with your grand business and perhaps a shop that was a little too small for ye, ye might consider extendin' by taking in my place and making one big premises with perhaps a plate-glass window or two.'
Brodie looked at him cuttingly for a long moment.
'Dear, dear! And it was to extend my business you worked out all this and came in twice in the one mornin',' he said at last.
'Indeed, no, Mr. Brodie. I've just told ye things have been goin' rather ill with me lately, and what with one thing and another, and the wife expecting again soon, I must get a bend on to let my property.'
'Now that's too bad,' purred Brodie. 'It's you small, snuffy men that will have the large families. I hope ye're not makin' me responsible for your latest addition, though. Ay, ye're fond o' the big family, I know. I've heard tell ye've that many weans ye can't count them. But,' he continued in a changed voice, 'don't make me responsible for them. My business is my own and I manage it my own way. I would as soon think of a cheap-lookin' plate-glass window as I would of giving away pokes o' sweeties with my hats. Damn you, man, don't you know I've the most distinguished people in the borough as my clients and my friends? Your empty shop's been a fester on my respectable office for months. Let it, for God's sake. Let it by all means. Let it to auld Nick, if ye like, but you'll never let it to me. Now get out and don't ever bother me like this again. I'm a busy man and I've no time for your stupid yammerin'!'
'Very well, Mr. Brodie,' replied the other quietly, twisting his bat in his hands. 'I'm sorry if I've offended ye, but I thought there was no harm in asking but you're a hard man to speak to.' He turned disconsolately to depart, but at that moment an agitated Perry shot himself into the room.
'Sir John's gig is at the door, Mr. Brodie,' he stammered. 'I saw it drive up this very minute!'
The assistant might deal with the less important, with, indeed, the bulk of the customers, to whom it was his duty to attend without disturbing Brodie, but when a personage came into the shop he knew his orders and raced for his master like a startled greyhound.
Brodie lifted his eyebrows with a look at Dron which said, 'You see!'; then, taking him firmly by the elbow, as he had no wish to be confronted by Sir John in the other's undistinguished company, he hurried him out of the office and through the shop, expediting his passage through the outer door with a final push. The indignity of this last, powerful, unexpected shove completely upset Dron, and, with a stagger, he slipped, his legs shot from under him, and he
landed full upon his backside at the very moment that Sir John Latta stepped out of his gig.
Latta laughed vociferously as he entered the shop and came close up to Brodie.
'It's the most amusing thing I've seen for ages, Brodie. The look on the poor man's face would have brought the house down at Drury's,' he cried, slapping his thigh with his driving gloves. 'But it's a blessing he wasn't hurt. Was he dunning you?' he asked slyly.
'Not at all, Sir John! He's just a bit blether of a man that's always making a public nuisance of himself.'
'A little fellow like that?' He looked at the other appraisingly. 'You know you can't realise your own strength, man! You're an uncommon powerful barbarian.'
'I just flicked him with my pinkie,' declared Brodie complacently, delighted to have so opportunely attracted the other's notice and feeling it sweet incense for his pride to receive attention from the distinguished principal of the famous Latta Shipyard. 'I could whip up a dozen like him with one hand,' he added carelessly 'not that I would soil my fingers that way. It's beneath my consideration.'
Sir John Latta was gazing at him quizzically along his finely chiselled nose. 'You're a character, Brodie, you know! I suppose that's why we cherish you,' he said. 'The body of a Hercules and the mind of well ' He smiled. 'Shall we put a glove on it for you?
You know the tag, 'odi projanum vulgus et arceo'?'
'Quite so! Quite so!' replied Brodie agreeably. 'You've a neat way o' puttin things, Sir John. There was something like that in the Herald this mornin'. I'm with you there!' He had not the least idea what the other was talking about.
'Don't let things run away with you though, Brodie,' said Sir John, with a warning shake of his head. 'A little of some things goes a long way. You're not to start knocking the borough about. And don't offer us too much baronial caviare. I hope you get my meaning. Well,' he added, abruptly changing the subject and his manner, allowing the latter to become formal, more distant, 'I
mustn't dally, for I'm in really a hurry I have a meeting but I want a Panama hat the real thing, you know. I haven't felt sun like this since I was in Barbados. Get some down from Glasgow if needs be. You have my size.'
'You shall have a selection to choose from at Levenford House this very afternoon,' replied Brodie complacently. 'I'll not leave it to my staff. I'll see to it myself.'
'Good! And by the by, Brodie,' he continued, arresting himself on his way to the door. 'I almost forgot that my agents write me from Calcutta that they're ready for your boy. He can leave on the Irrawaddy on June the fourteenth. She's a Denny-built packet, nineteen hundred tons, you know. Fine boat! Our people will look after his berth for him.'
'That is more than kind of you, Sir John,' purred Brodie, 'I'm deeply grateful. I'm most indebted for the way you've put yourself about for me over that matter.'
'Nothing! Nothing!' replied the other absently. 'We've got plenty young fellows at this end, but we want them at our docks out there the right kind, that's to say! The climate's really nothing to speak of, but he'll need to watch the life out there. It sometimes knocks a young fellow off his feet. I'll have a word with him if I've time. I hope he docs well for your sake. By the way, how is that remarkably pretty daughter of yours?'
'Quite fair.'
'And the clever little sprat?'
'Splendid, Sir John.'
'And Mrs. Brodie?'
'Middling well, thank ye.'
'Good! Well, I'm off now! Don't forget that hat of mine.'
He was into his gig, a fine, spare, patrician figure of a man, had taken the reins from his groom and was off, spanking down the High Street, with the smooth, glossy flanks of the cob gleaming, and the high lights flashing on whirling spokes, gleaming metal, shining liveried cockade, and upon the rich lustre of varnished coachwork.
Rubbing his hands together, his eye dilating with a suppressed exultation, Brodie returned from the doorway, and to Perry, who had remained, a dropping, nebulous shadow in the background, he cried, with unwonted volubility:
'Did ye hear that conversation we had? Was it not grand? Was it not enough to make these long lugs o' yours stand out from your head? But I suppose the half of it was above ye. You'll not understand the Latin. No! But you heard what Sir John said to me gettin' that post for my son and sperin' all about my family. Answer me, ye puir fool,' he called out. 'Did you hear what Sir John Latta said to James Brodie?'
'Yes, sir,' stammered Perry,' I heard.”
“Did you see how he treated me?' whispered Brodie.
'Certainly I did, Mr. Brodie!' replied the other, with returning confidence, perceiving that he was not to be rebuked for eavesdropping. 'I wasn't meaning to to overhear or to spy on you, but I did observe you both, sir, and I agree with you. Sir John is a fine man. He was more than good to my mother when my father died so sudden. Oh!
