"We are hard at work on another line," he announced, "and for failure, no charge is made. We will communicate most important news, at a very early date."
"I don't believe in your Jaffer and Co." said Major Rochfort as he and his guest paced the garden together one moonlight evening, when the young people had retired. "I'd be a better help myself—on the principle of set a thief to catch a thief. I am up to lots of dodges, I understand how to cover my tracks, or to bolt for my hole, like a rabbit."
"Yes, I suppose you must be pretty smart," assumed Mallender.
"I am," he rejoined emphatically. "When Sophy is bound for Egypt—she generally winters there—I drop her at Port Said and come on to the estate, put in a couple of days with Fraser, and then double down to the kids."
"How often have you been out?"
"This is my fourth trip, since Mota was born. You see, I hate to miss the hunting. This year, I'm out a bit late—but I don't want the Smiths to forget their old Daddy."
"No, but when they grow up, how will it be?"
"Ah, that's the rub, when they grow up?—especially when Mota grows up. My wife is as prim and as starched as they make 'em; she looks like an old maid; but she loves children, and since she has none, she adopts dogs. You know the little brown Pom, she calls it her child, and her baby boy—it's pitiful!"
"Perhaps she would take to your children?" suggested Mallender.
"Never! For one thing, she's as jealous as the devil. If I speak to a good-looking woman more than once, she's down on me like bricks. When some confounded gossip told her that I was always riding with that pretty Mrs. Chester—you remember her—by Jove, she took to coming out herself! The ruling passion, stronger than the fear of death. Sophy can't ride for nuts, but she's plucky as the deuce. On the other hand, anything in the shape of a scandal, floors her; she knows nothing of life, nor of men's lives; poor dear, good woman, she thinks we are saints. I'm fond of her,—though it was a mariage de convenance, and she has been awfully generous to me; paid my debts, and gives me a free hand. If the secret of the coffee estate came to her ears, she'd get a separation like a shot, and I'd be fired out of the country!"