Chapter 5 An Invitation

"A LETTER for me!" exclaimed Arthur, as he took his seat at the breakfast-table next morning and saw the letter beside his plate.

But Molly came in the next minute, before the letter could be opened. "Arthur, I have thought of a plan to get over the difficulty about Mamma's new dressing-gown," she said.

"All right! Get over the difficulty if you can, and if she won't agree, tell her what Mr. Andrews says about things if you like. But if she won't be persuaded to help with us, why, I may as well give up trying, and let things drift as they have done before."

"What would happen then?" asked Molly.

"Well, the last of the property would soon be eaten up, and Mamma's little bit would be all that was left, and as that ceases with her life, I suppose you and Annie would have to go out as governesses."

"Don't be horrid, Arthur," said Annie stiffly.

"Well, it's the truth, horrid as it may be," retorted her brother.

"Read your letter while we think over the truth," said Molly.

Arthur was not long reading his missive, and a pleasant smile crossed his face as he laid it down beside his plate and said: "Jack Brading wants me to go there to dinner, and spend the evening with them, to-morrow. They dine at seven. I suppose it is all right for shirts and tie?"

"There is a dress-shirt clean in your drawer, I know, but what about your coat? You will have to get a new one, I am sure," said his elder sister.

"Quite impossible!" said Arthur. "We can't afford it."

"But, Arthur, you can't go out to dinner without a coat!" said Molly. "And you know you have grown so fast lately that it won't fit you."

"I haven't tried it yet. Go and fetch it, Molly, and if it wants altering, I'll take it with me this morning and see whether Mr. Langley can get anything done with it in our tailoring shop."

Molly ran up and fetched the coat, and Arthur put it on. "You never will be able to wear that again!" exclaimed Molly in dismay.

"Not as it is. But they may be able to alter it, and I shall take it with me when I go."

"And if it cannot be made to fit you as a gentleman's coat should fit, you must order another to be made by to-morrow night, for it would never do to go to these Bradings looking anything but a gentleman."

"And that all depends upon wearing a dress-coat, I suppose?" said Arthur.

"Oh, Arthur, it is dreadful to have to talk of things like this!" said his elder sister.

Arthur laughed and made fun of the whole thing. But when he had started with his parcel, he too began to feel that it was no laughing matter after all. For what would be thought of him if he presented himself in the Brading dining-room wearing an ordinary black cloth coat. Of course they would know that he used to wear a dress-suit among his own set, and they might take it as a downright insult if he appeared in any other.

So he resolved to put his pride in his pocket so far as the manager of the tailoring department was concerned, and tell him that it was necessary for him to wear this coat if it could possibly be made to fit him, but that he could not afford to buy another.

He went to Mr. Langley's room, and was fortunate enough to see him as he came in, and the difficulties about the coat were explained to him.

"I understand, Mr. Murray," he said.

"You won't want to wear a dress-suit very often now, and of course you don't want to spend much money on what will be of little use. You leave the coat with me," he said, when Arthur put it on that he might see how he had outgrown it. "I shall be able to tell you by dinner-time whether we can alter it for you. One word before you go. I wish you would hunt through your drawer and desk upstairs, and see if that missing letter fell in either place when you were sorting them."

"What letter?" asked Arthur.

"Oh, I forgot! It was after you had left that Mr. Brading received a letter by the evening post from Lady Mary Murray, asking about an order she had sent to me a week before, and adding that the receipt had not been sent for the money she enclosed. I have never seen the letter. I was coming up to you this morning about it."

"I have always been very careful to deliver all the letters I get," said Arthur.

"Oh, yes! We are all satisfied with the way we get our morning letters now. I was only speaking of it to Mr. Brading the other day."

"Well, I will have a hunt upstairs, and see if it has fallen down anywhere, but I am pretty sharp to see if one does fall, and I pick it up at once."

"Well, look through your desk and drawers as soon as you can, and I hope you will find it."

Arthur went up to sort the letters for that morning, and looked in his desk at once, in the hope of being able to tell Mr. Langley that he had found it, when he went down with the bag. But he was scarcely surprised that he did not see anything of it, for if it had been handy, he would have seen it before. And so he went his round and resolved to make a thorough search when he got back.

"There is a letter missing," he said to Mr. Bristow, after he had wished that gentleman "Good-morning."

"Ah! I was just going to tell you the same thing," said the accountant. "You would have heard about it last night, if you had not been in such a hurry to get away. Mr. Brading and I were locking up when a letter was brought from Lady Mary Murray."

"Yes, and won't there be a fuss if we can't find that letter she sent a week ago!" laughed Arthur. "Mr. Langley has told me all about it. She'll turn the post office upside down."

"You know the lady, then?"

"Well, she's a sort of cousin, I suppose. Her husband was a cousin of Papa's, only that branch of the family happen to be rich, and we are poor. Still, Adrian—that is her only son—has always been very chummy with me, and we have called each other cousin, and got into scrapes together, for which I got all the blame if Lady Mary found it out."