Number 70, Berlin by William Le Queux

Later that same evening Jack, who had walked down Fitzjohn's Avenue to Mr Shearman's, as was his habit, found Elise's father at home.

Though old Dan Shearman, a hale, bluff North-country man, rather liked young Sainsbury, yet, at heart, he would have preferred a man of established prosperity as his daughter's husband -- a manufacturer like himself, or a professional man with a good paying practice. Dan Shearman -- as everybody called him in Birmingham -- was a practical man, and had made a fortune by dint of hard toil and strict economy. He had begun as a half-timer in a cotton-mill in Oldham, and had risen, step by step, until now he was one of the biggest private employers of labour in the Midlands.