Hilda Lessways | Page 9

mother had
unsuspectingly put the scheme into her head!
However, the deed was done. Hilda generally acted first and reflected
afterwards. She was frightened, but rather by the unknown than by
anything she could define.
"You've come about the property?" said Mr. Cannon amiably, in a
matter-of-fact tone.
He had deep black eyes, and black hair, like Hilda's; good, regular teeth,
and a clear complexion; perhaps his nose was rather large, but it was
straight. With his large pale hands he occasionally stroked his long soft
moustache; the chin was blue. He was smartly dressed in dark blue; he
had a beautiful neck-tie, and the genuine whiteness of his wristbands
was remarkable in a district where starched linen was usually either
grey or bluish. He was not a dandy, but he respected his person; he
evidently gave careful attention to his body; and this trait alone set him
apart among the citizens of Turnhill.
"Yes," said Hilda. She thought: "He's a very handsome man! How
strange I don't remember seeing him in the streets!" She was in awe of

him. He was indefinitely older than herself; and she felt like a child, out
of place in the easy-chair.
"I suppose it's about the rent-collecting?" he pursued.
"Yes--it is," she answered, astonished that he could thus divine her
purpose. "I mean--"
"What does your mother want to do?"
"Oh!" said Hilda, speaking low. "It's not mother. I've come to consult
you myself. Mother doesn't know. I'm nearly twenty-one, and it's really
my property, you know!" She blushed with shame.
"Ah!" he exclaimed. He tried to disguise his astonishment in an easy,
friendly smile. But he was most obviously startled. He looked at Hilda
in a different way, with a much intensified curiosity.
"Yes," she resumed. He now seemed to her more like a fellow-creature,
and less like a member of the inimical older generation.
"So you're nearly twenty-one?"
"In December," she said. "And I think under my father's will--" She
stopped, at a loss. "The fact is, I don't think mother will be quite able to
look after the property properly, and I'm afraid--you see, now that Mr.
Skellorn has had this stroke--"
"Yes," said Mr. Cannon, "I heard about that, and I was thinking perhaps
Mrs. Lessways had sent you.... We collect rents, you know."
"I see!" Hilda murmured. "Well, the truth is, mother hasn't the slightest
idea I'm here. Not the slightest! And I wouldn't hurt her feelings for
anything." He nodded sympathetically. "But I thought something ought
to be done. She's decided to collect our Calder Street rents herself, and
she isn't fitted to do it. And then there's the question of the repairs.... I
know the rents are going down. I expect it's all mother's for life, but I
want there to be something left for me when she's gone, you see! And

if--I've never seen the will. I suppose there's no way of seeing a copy of
it, somewhere?... I can't very well ask mother again."
"I know all about the will," said Mr. Cannon.
"You do?"
Wondrous, magical man!
"Yes," he explained. "I used to be at Toms and Scoles's. I was there
when it was made. I copied it."
"Really!" She felt that he would save her, not only from any possible
unpleasant consequences of her escapade, but also from suffering
ultimate loss by reason of her mother's foolishness.
"You're quite right," he continued. "I remember it perfectly. Your
mother is what we call tenant-for-life; everything goes to you in the
end."
"Well," Hilda asked abruptly. "All I want to know is, what I can do."
"Of course, without upsetting your mother?"
He glanced at her. She blushed again.
"Naturally," she said coldly.
"You say you think the property is going down--it is, everybody knows
that--and your mother thinks of collecting the rents herself.... Well,
young lady, it's very difficult, very difficult, your mother being the
trustee and executor."
"Yes, that's what she's always saying--she's the trustee and executor."
"You'd better let me think it over for a day or two."
"And shall I call in again?"

"You might slip in if you're passing. I'll see what can be done. Of
course it would never do for you to have any difficulty with your
mother."
"Oh no!" she concurred vehemently. "Anything would be better than
that. But I thought there was no harm in me--"
"Certainly not."
She had a profound confidence in him. And she was very content so far
with the result of her adventure.
"I hope nobody will find out I've been here," she said timidly. "Because
if it did get to mother's ears--"
"Nobody will find out," he reassured her.
Assuredly his influence was tranquillizing. Even while he insisted on
the difficulties of the situation, he seemed to be smoothing them away.
She