“Dear father,” she said, as they stood within the lower room, which was being now fitted as of old for a shop, “forgive us if we have kept our happy secret till now.  We wanted to have the home ready ere we brought you to it.  This is our home.  A wonderful thing befell me.  A dowry was bestowed upon me by a generous patroness, from whom I looked not to receive a penny; that dowry bought the house.  Reuben’s business will give us an ample livelihood.  Thou wilt remain always with us in the dear old house which thou hast loved.  Oh how happy we shall be—­how wondrously happy!

“Father dear, it was Lady Scrope who gave me the wonderful gift that has brought us all this.  We must try to thank her ere we think of ourselves more.”

So speaking Gertrude turned, with her eyes full of happy tears, towards Lady Scrope, who stood only a few paces off watching everything with her accustomed intense scrutiny, and held out both her hands in a sweet and simple gesture expressive of so much feeling that the old dame felt an unwonted mist rising in her eyes.

“Tut, tut, tut, child!  I want no thanks.  What good did the gold do me, thinkest thou, shut away in yonder box?  What think you I had preserved it there for?  Marry that I might fling it away at dice or cards with those who came to visit me?  It was my pleasure money, as I chose to call it.  And then came the plague and smote hip and thigh amongst those who called me friend.  And what good did the gold do me or any person else?  If it pleases me to throw it away on a pair of fools, whose business is that but mine?

“There, there, there, that will do, all of you good people.  I want to see the house.  I want none of your fool’s talk.  Going to keep a shop here?—­sensible man.  I’ll come and buy all my finery when you start business, and sit and gossip at the counter the while.  So mind you have plenty of fine folks to gossip with me.  If I were young again, I vow I’d keep a shop myself.”

And she made Reuben show samples of his goods, which were piled up in readiness, albeit he was not quite ready to open shop; and very excellent of their kind they were, as Lady Scrope was not slow to remark.

“I’ll send the whole city to you.  I’ll make you the fashion yet.  If I were a younger woman, and had my own old train of gallants after me, I’d have made your fortune for you before the year was out.  But I’ll do something yet, you shall see.  And mind that you never begin to lend money, young man, to any needy young fool who may ask it of you.  Those greedy court gallants would eat up all the gold of the Indies, and be no whit the richer for it.  No money lending, young man, for in that way lies ruin, as too many have found.”

The Master Builder winced like one touched in a tender part, whilst Reuben answered boldly: 

“I have no such intentions.  I hate usury, nor care I to earn money for others to filch from me.  I get my wealth by honest trade; and if any man comes to me for aid, all the help I can give him is to put him in the way of doing the like.”