"What had I best do?" asked Norgate. "Lloyd's are about giving the Eurotas up."
"Cable out and make sure," said I. "If he calls at the Bank, he calls; and if he doesn't, there are no bones broken. Something has gone wrong with the ship; and in the mix-up he may easily have lost his ready cash and be landed at Sydney without a cent."
I should have told you that, about a fortnight before this, Jimmy had solved, or partially solved, the puzzle of that entry "Mr. and Mrs. P. Farrell" on the passenger-list. Jimmy had found a good girl, and as pretty almost as she was good, and yet imprudent enough to consent to marry him. This had the effect of rendering him at once and surprisingly prudent. As the poet puts it, "he had found out a flat for his fair," and as he himself put it, "We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow: but be-shrew me, we never thought of making my bank-manager one of the party, to break him in to our ways; the consequence being that Elinor's maid will have to stick a bedroom-suite priced five-pounds-ten, while the other domestics, unless dividends improve, sleep (poor souls, insecurely) upon bedsteads liable to be spirited from under them at any moment by a Hire System that knows no bowels.… By George!" sighed Jimmy. "If we hadn't let Farrell slip through our fingers! Do you know, Otty, I've an idea," he announced. "Why shouldn't I take the Tottenham Court Road to-morrow, visit Farrell's old place of business, and kill two birds with one stone?"
"It sounds a sporting proposition," I agreed, "though sketchily presented."
"Adumbrated," suggested Jimmy. "That's a good word. I found it in yesterday's Observer."
"Adumbrated, then," said I. "The Tottenham Court Road—"
"—And two birds with one stone. No moors for me this year: I'm back on the simple life and the catapult.… You just wait."
There really is no resisting Jimmy, nor ever will be. He went up the Tottenham Court Road next day, walked into Farrell's late place of business and demanded to see the General Manager; and—if you'll believe it—that dignitary was fetched amid a hush of awe. "I dropped in," explained Jimmy, "to see one of those cheap bedroom suites you advertise, in pickled walnut—or is it marron glace?— suitable for a house-parlourmaid. The fact is, I'm going to get married—well, you've guessed that—otherwise, of course, I shouldn't be here.… My intended wife—she's a Devonshire lady, by the way—from near Honiton. Anything wrong about Honiton?… No? I beg your pardon—I thought you smiled.… Well, as I was about to explain, my intended wife, coming as she does from near Honiton— that's where they make the lace—likes her servants to be comfortable: at least, so she says. Your late Managing Director, had he lived—" Here Jimmy made a pause.
"You knew our Mr. Farrell, sir?" asked the present Managing Director, sympathetically.
"He honoured me with his acquaintance. If he had lived," said Jimmy … "But there!… By the way… that second marriage of his—wasn't it rather sudden? I understood him to be a confirmed widower."