The Luminaries

He put up a card in his cubicle to indicate that the window was closed.

‘You off for the day?’ a colleague asked.

‘I suppose I could be,’ said Frost, blinking. ‘I hadn’t thought that I might; I had intended to return after my lunch hour.’

‘We’ll be closed by two, and there’s no more buying today, once this lot is done,’ the other banker said. He stretched his back, and slapped his belly with both hands. ‘May as well see you Monday, Charlie.’

‘Well!’ Frost murmured, gazing into the crown of his hat, as though suddenly perplexed to see it in his hand. ‘That’s very kind of you. Thank you very much.’

Dick Ma

‘Charlie Frost! You’re a man I didn’t expect to see,’ Ma

‘Down, girl,’ said Frost to the dog, gripping her muzzle, looking into her eyes, mussing her ears—and, satisfied, she dropped back onto all fours, and trotted back to her master, where she turned, sank down, put her nose upon her paws, and watched Frost from beneath her brows, sorrowfully.

He closed the door as he was bid. ‘How are you, Dick?’

‘How am I?’ Ma

Despite this encouragement Frost was careful to hang up his coat so that it did not touch Ma

‘It’s a pig of a day,’ he said.

‘Sit down, sit down,’ said Ma

‘I will, if you will,’ said Frost, this being his policy in all expressions of appetite and thirst. He sat down, placing the palms of his hands upon his knees, and looked about him.

Ma

The room had been designed as a testament to the wealth of its owner; for Ma

‘Yes: what a fortnight it’s been,’ Ma

‘Miss Wetherell—and Mr. Staines?’ Frost had curled his hands around the scrolled arms of his chair, and was tracing the groove of the carving with the tips of his fingers.

Beauty, for Charlie Frost, was more or less synonymous with refinement. The ideal woman, in his mind, was one devoted to the project of her own enhancement, who was accomplished in the female arts of embroidery, piano-playing, pressing leaves, and the like; who sang sweetly, read quietly, and demurred to all opinion; who was a charming and priceless collectible; who loved, above all things, to be loved. A

‘Oh, yes,’ said Ma

Frost accepted a cigar from the box, and Ma

‘But that’s not to say a word of the troubles you’ve been going through,’ Ma

Frost looked pained. ‘My troubles—as you call them—are under control,’ he said.

‘I should say they are not,’ said Ma

‘That’s not the truth of it,’ said the banker.

‘It looks like you’re in it together, Charlie,’ Ma