Edith Longworth could hardly be said to be a typical representative of
the English girl. She had the English girl's education, but not her
training. She had lost her mother in early life, which makes a great
difference in a girl's bringing up, however wealthy her father may be;
and Edith's father was wealthy, there was no doubt of that. If you asked
any City man about the standing of John Longworth, you would learn that
the 'house' was well thought of. People said he was lucky, but old John
Longworth asserted that there was no such thing as luck in business--in
which statement he was very likely incorrect. He had large investments in
almost every quarter of the globe. When he went into any enterprise, he
went into it thoroughly. Men talk about the inadvisability of putting all
one's eggs into one basket, but John Longworth was a believer in doing
that very thing--and in watching the basket. Not that he had all his eggs
in one basket, or even in one kind of basket; but when John Longworth was
satisfied with the particular variety of basket presented to him, he put
a large number of eggs in it. When anything was offered for
investment--whether it was a mine or a brewery or a railway--John
Longworth took an expert's opinion upon it, and then the chances were
that he would disregard the advice given. He was in the habit of going
personally to see what had been offered to him. If the enterprise were
big enough, he thought little of taking a voyage to the other end of the
world for the sole purpose of looking the investment over. It was true
that in many cases he knew nothing whatever of the business he went to
examine, but that did not matter; he liked to have a personal inspection
where a large amount of his money was to be placed. Investment seemed to
be a sort of intuition with him. Often, when the experts' opinions were
unanimously in favour of the project, and when everything appeared to be
perfectly safe, Longworth would pay a personal visit to the business
offered for sale, and come to a sudden conclusion not to have anything to
do with it. He would give no reasons to his colleagues for his change of
front; he simply refused to entertain the proposal any further, and
withdrew. Several instances of this kind had occurred. Sometimes a large
and profitable business, held out in the prospectus to be exceedingly
desirable, had come to nothing, and when the company was wound up,
people remembered what Longworth had said about it. So there came to be a
certain superstitious feeling among those who knew him, that, if old Mr.
Longworth was in a thing, the thing was safe, and if a company promoter
managed to get his name on the prospectus, his project was almost certain
to succeed.
* * * * *
When Edith Longworth was pronounced finished so far as education was
concerned, she became more and more the companion of her father, and he
often jokingly referred to her as his man of business. She went with him
on his long journeys, and so had been several times to America, once to
the Cape, and one long voyage, with Australia as the objective point, had
taken her completely round the world. She inherited much of her father's
shrewdness, and there is no doubt that, if Edith Longworth had been cast
upon her own resources, she would have become an excellent woman of
business. She knew exactly the extent of her father's investments, and
she was his confidante in a way that few women are with their male
relatives. The old man had a great faith in Edith's opinion, although he
rarely acknowledged it. Having been together so much on such long trips,
they naturally became, in a way, boon companions. Thus, Edith's education
was very unlike that of the ordinary English girl, and this particular
training caused her to develop into a different kind of woman than she
might have been had her mother lived.
Perfect confidence existed between father and daughter, and only lately
had there come a shadow upon their relations, about which neither ever
spoke to the other since their first conversation on the subject.
Edith had said, with perhaps more than her usual outspokenness, that she
had no thought whatever of marriage, and least of all had her thoughts
turned toward the man her father seemed to have chosen. In answer to
this, her father had said nothing, but Edith knew him too well to believe
that he had changed his mind about the matter. The fact that he had
invited her cousin to join them on this particular journey showed her
that he evidently believed all that was necessary was to throw them more
together than had been the case previously; and, although Edith was
silent, she thought her father had not the same shrewdness in these
matters that he showed in the purchasing of a growing business. Edith had
been perfectly civil to the young man--as she would have been to
anyone--but he saw that she preferred her own company to his; and so,
much to the disgust of Mr. Longworth, he spent most of his time at cards
in the smoking-room, whereas, according to the elder gentleman's opinion,
he should have been promenading the deck with his cousin.
William Longworth, the cousin, was inclined to be a trifle put out, for
he looked upon himself as quite an eligible person, one whom any girl in
her senses would be glad to look forward to as a possible husband. He
made no pretence of being madly in love with Edith, but he thought the
marriage would be an admirable thing all round. She was a nice girl, he
said to himself, and his uncle's money was well worth thinking about. In
fact, he was becoming desirous that the marriage should take place; but,
as there was no one upon whom he could look as a rival, he had the field
to himself. He would therefore show Miss Edith that he was by no means
entirely dependent for his happiness upon her company; and this he
proceeded to do by spending his time in the smoking-room, and playing
cards with his fellow-passengers. It was quite evident to anyone who saw
Edith, that, if this suited him, it certainly suited her; so they rarely
met on shipboard except at table, where Edith's place was between her
father and her cousin. Miss Longworth and her cousin had had one brief
conversation on the subject of marriage. He spoke of it rather jauntily,
as being quite a good arrangement, but she said very shortly that she had
no desire to change her name.
'You don't need to,' said Cousin William; 'my name is Longworth, and so
is yours.'
'It is not a subject for a joke,' she answered.
'I am not joking, my dear Edith. I am merely telling you what everybody
knows to be true. You surely don't deny that my name is Longworth?'
'I don't mean to deny or affirm anything in relation to the matter,'
replied the young woman, 'and you will oblige me very much if you will
never recur to this subject again.'
And so the young man betook himself once more to the smoking-room.
On this trip Edith had seen a good deal of American society. People over
there had made it very pleasant for her, and, although the weather was
somewhat trying, she had greatly enjoyed the sleigh-rides and the
different festivities which winter brings to the citizen of Northern
America. Her father and her cousin had gone to America to see numerous
breweries that were situated in different parts of the country, and
which it was proposed to combine into one large company. They had made a
Western city their headquarters, and while Edith was enjoying herself
with her newly-found friends, the two men had visited the breweries in
different sections of the country--all, however, near the city where
Edith was staying. The breweries seemed to be in a very prosperous
condition, although the young man declared the beer they brewed was the
vilest he had ever tasted, and he said he wouldn't like to have anything
to do with the production of it, even if it did turn in money. His uncle
had not tried the beer, but confined himself solely to the good old
bottled English ale, which had increased in price, if not in excellence,
by its transportation. But there was something about the combination
that did not please him; and, from the few words he dropped on the
subject, his nephew saw that Longworth was not going to be a member of
the big Beer Syndicate. The intention had been to take a trip to Canada,
and Edith had some hopes of seeing the city of Montreal in its winter
dress; but that visit had been abandoned, as so much time had been
consumed in the Western States. So they began their homeward voyage,
with the elder Longworth sitting a good deal in his deck-chair, and
young Longworth spending much of his time in the smoking-room, while
Edith walked the deck alone. And this was the lady whom Fate threw into
the arms of John Kenyon.