New Grub Street Read Free Page B

confidentially.
    'The poor girl must feel it,' said Mrs Milvain.
    'I'm afraid she does. Of course it narrows the circle of her
friends at home. She's a sweet girl, and I should so like you to
meet her. Do come and have tea with us to-morrow afternoon, will
you? Or would it be too much for you just now?'
    'Will you let the girls call? And then perhaps Miss Yule will be
so good as to come and see me?'
    'I wonder whether Mr Milvain would like to meet her father? I
have thought that perhaps it might be some advantage to him. Alfred
is so closely connected with literary people, you know.'
    'I feel sure he would be glad,' replied Mrs Milvain. 'But—what
of Jasper's friendship with Mrs Edmund Yule and the Reardons?
Mightn't it be a little awkward?'
    'Oh, I don't think so, unless he himself felt it so. There would
be no need to mention that, I should say. And, really, it would be
so much better if those estrangements came to an end. John makes no
scruple of speaking freely about everyone, and I don't think Alfred
regards Mrs Edmund with any serious unkindness. If Mr Milvain would
walk over with the young ladies to-morrow, it would be very
pleasant.'
    'Then I think I may promise that he will. I'm sure I don't know
where he is at this moment. We don't see very much of him, except
at meals.'
    'He won't be with you much longer, I suppose?'
    'Perhaps a week.'
    Before Miss Harrow's departure Maud and Dora reached home. They
were curious to see the young lady from the valley of the shadow of
books, and gladly accepted the invitation offered them.
    They set out on the following afternoon in their brother's
company. It was only a quarter of an hour's walk to Mr Yule's
habitation, a small house in a large garden. Jasper was coming
hither for the first time; his sisters now and then visited Miss
Harrow, but very rarely saw Mr Yule himself who made no secret of
the fact that he cared little for female society. In Wattleborough
and the neighbourhood opinions varied greatly as to this
gentleman's character, but women seldom spoke very favourably of
him. Miss Harrow was reticent concerning her brother-in-law; no
one, however, had any reason to believe that she found life under
his roof disagreeable. That she lived with him at all was of course
occasionally matter for comment, certain Wattleborough ladies
having their doubts regarding the position of a deceased wife's
sister under such circumstances; but no one was seriously exercised
about the relations between this sober lady of forty-five and a man
of sixty-three in broken health.
    A word of the family history.
    John, Alfred, and Edmund Yule were the sons of a Wattleborough
stationer. Each was well educated, up to the age of seventeen, at
the town's grammar school. The eldest, who was a hot-headed lad,
but showed capacities for business, worked at first with his
father, endeavouring to add a bookselling department to the trade
in stationery; but the life of home was not much to his taste, and
at one-and-twenty he obtained a clerk's place in the office of a
London newspaper. Three years after, his father died, and the small
patrimony which fell to him he used in making himself practically
acquainted with the details of paper manufacture, his aim being to
establish himself in partnership with an acquaintance who had
started a small paper-mill in Hertfordshire.
    His speculation succeeded, and as years went on he became a
thriving manufacturer. His brother Alfred, in the meantime, had
drifted from work at a London bookseller's into the modern Grub
Street, his adventures in which region will concern us
hereafter.
    Edmund carried on the Wattleborough business, but with small
success. Between him and his eldest brother existed a good deal of
affection, and in the end John offered him a share in his
flourishing paper works; whereupon Edmund married, deeming himself
well established for life. But John's temper was a difficult one;
Edmund and he quarrelled, parted; and when the younger died, aged
about