At odd moments David and Dickey Bulmer discussed the partnership. The young people would be home in two months, and then Philip was to come into the business.
"We're growing old, David," said Dickey. "I've got plenty of money, an' you'll 'ave a tidy bit now, but there's one thing neether of us can buy, and that's youth."
"I don't want to be young again," said David, "but I'd like to go back just a year or so--no more.
"Well, there's bin times w'en--w'en I'd 'ave acted different. Wot do you say, Jimmie?"
Coke, thus appealed to, glowered at his employer.
"Say!" he growled. "I say nothink. I know you, David."
Philip and Iris attended Carmela's wedding during their honeymoon. The cathedral at Rio de Janeiro was packed, and Iris was quite inconspicuous among the many richly-attired ladies who graced the ceremony by their presence. Nevertheless, Colonel Salvador San Benavides favored her with a peculiar smile as he led his bride down the central aisle.
She laughed, blushed, and looked at her husband.
"Yes, I saw him," he whispered. "But I never feared him. It was you that made me sit up. By the way, old girl, let us cut out the reception. I want to call at the bank, and at a shop in the Rua Grande. You will be interested."
Well, being a good and loving wife, she was interested deeply. Ten thousand pounds was Dom Corria's financial estimate of the services rendered by Philip, and Iris was absolutely dumfounded by the total in milreis. But her voice came back when Philip took her to a jeweler's, and the man produced a gold cross on which blazed four glorious diamonds. Dom Corria had given her a necklace many times more valuable; but this----
"Oh, my dear, my dear!" she murmured, and her eyes grew moist.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Stowaway Girl, by Louis Tracy