The Late Mrs. Null | Page 7

by short curtains, he saw a young girl busily
engaged in reading a book. He proffered her the note, the proprietor at
the same time calling out: "Two, seven."
The girl turned the book down to keep the place; then she took the note,
and opened a small drawer, in which she fumbled for some moments.
Closing the drawer, she rose to her feet and waved the note over the
curtain to her right. "Haven't any change, eh?" said the man, coming
from behind the counter, and putting on his hat. "As the boy's not here,
I'll step out and get it."
The girl turned up her book, and began to read again, and Lawrence
stood and looked at her, wondering what need there was of a cashier in
a place like this. She appeared to be under twenty, rather thin-faced,
and was plainly dressed. In a few moments she raised her eyes from her
book, and said: "Won't you sit down, sir? I am sorry you have to wait,
but we are short of change to-day, and sometimes it is hard to get it in
this neighborhood."
Lawrence declined to be seated, but was very willing to talk. "Was it
the proprietor of this establishment," he asked, "who went out to get the
money changed??"
"Yes, sir," she answered. "That is Mr Candy."
"A queer name," said Lawrence, smiling.
The girl looked up at him, and smiled in return. There was a very
perceptible twinkle in her eyes, which seemed to be eyes that would
like to be merry ones, and a slight movement of the corners of her

mouth which indicated a desire to say something in reply, but,
restrained probably by loyalty to her employer, or by prudent discretion
regarding conversation with strangers, she was silent.
Lawrence, however, continued his remarks. "The whole business seems
to me very odd. Suppose I were to come here and ask for information
as to where I could get a five-dollar note changed; would Mr Candy be
able to tell me?"
"He would do in that case just as he does in all others," she said; "first,
he would go and find out, and then he would let you know. Giving
information is only half the business; finding things out is the other half.
That's what he's doing now."
"So, when he comes back," said Lawrence, "he'll have a new bit of
information to add to his stock on hand, which must be a very peculiar
one, I fancy."
The cashier smiled. "Yes," she said, "and a very useful one, too, if
people only knew it."
"Don't they know it?" asked Lawrence. "Don't you have plenty of
custom?"
At this moment the door opened, Mr Candy entered, and the
conversation stopped.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, sir," said the proprietor, passing some
money to the cashier over the curtain, who, thereupon, handed two
dollars and ninety-three cents to Lawrence through the little opening in
front.
"If you call the day after to-morrow, the information will be ready for
you," said Mr Candy, as the gentleman departed.
On the appointed day, Lawrence came again, and found nobody in the
place but the cashier, who handed him a note.

"Mr Candy left this for you, in case he should not be in when you
called," she said.
The note stated that the search for the address of Junius Keswick had
opened very encouragingly, but as it was quite evident that said person
was not now in the city, the investigations would have to be carried on
on a more extended scale, and a deposit of three dollars would be
necessary to meet expenses.
Lawrence looked from the note to the cashier, who had been watching
him as he read. "Does Mr Candy want me to leave three dollars with
you?" he asked.
"That's what he said, sir."
"Well," said Lawrence, "I don't care about paying for unlimited
investigation in this way. If the gentleman I am in search of has left the
city, and Mr Candy has been able to find out to what place he went, he
should have told me that, and I would have decided whether or not I
wanted him to do anything more."
The face of the cashier appeared troubled. "I think, sir," she said, "that
if you leave the money, Mr Candy will do all he can to discover what
you wish to know, and that it will not be very long before you have the
address of the person you are seeking."
"Do you really think he has any clew?" asked Lawrence.
This question did not seem to please the cashier, and she answered
gravely, though without any show of resentment: "That is a strange
question after I advised you to leave the money."
Lawrence had a kind