"I say, father, I shall want the keys of the desk, and all that."
"Keys o' th' desk!" Darius muttered, leaning on the spade, as though
demanding in stupefaction, "What on earth can you want the keys for?"
"Well--" Edwin stammered.
But the proposition was too obvious to be denied. Darius left the spade
to stand up by itself, and stared.
"Got 'em in your pocket?" Edwin inquired.
Slowly Darius drew forth a heavy, glittering bunch of keys, one of the
chief insignia of his dominion, and began to fumble at it.
"You needn't take any of them off. I expect I know which is which,"
said Edwin, holding out his hand.
Darius hesitated, and then yielded up the bunch.
"Thanks," said Edwin lightly.
But the old man's reluctance to perform this simple and absolutely
necessary act of surrender, the old man's air of having done something
tremendous--these signs frightened Edwin and shook his courage for the
demand compared to which the demand for the keys was naught. Still, the
affair had to be carried through.
"And I say," he proceeded, jingling the keys, "about signing and
endorsing cheques. They tell me at the Bank that if you sign a general
authority to me to do it for you, that will be enough."
He could not avoid looking guilty. He almost felt guilty, almost felt
as if he were plotting against his father's welfare. And as he spoke
his words seemed unreal and his suggestion fantastic. At the Bank the
plan had been simple, easy, and perfectly natural. But there could be
no doubt, that as he had walked up Trafalgar Road, receding from the
Bank and approaching his father, the plan had gradually lost those
attractive qualities. And now in the garden it was merely monstrous.
Silent, Darius resumed the spade.
"Well," said Edwin desperately. "What about it?"
"Do you think"--Darius glowered upon him with heavy, desolating
scorn--"do you think as I'm going to let you sign my cheques for me?
You're taking too much on yourself, my lad."
"But--"
"I tell ye you're taking too much on yourself!" he began to shout
menacingly. "Get about your business and don't act the fool! You
needn't think you're going to be God A'mighty because you've got up a
bit earlier for once in a way and been down to th' shop before
breakfast."
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