"Oh, of course I forgot that you had not heard anything. My father never told me, till a few weeks before he died."
"Yes, yes, yes, go on," urged his listener impatiently.
"You will see all about it in this," now producing a pocket-book, from which he carefully extracted a thin flimsy letter. "Our lawyers at home know of this, so do Brown and Co., but no one else."
Colonel Tallboys resumed his spectacles, and slowly read and re-read the contents of a single sheet of paper. Here was the second startling episode, which had come before him that morning. As he studied the faded lines, he was thinking hard, and swiftly making up his mind. So Geoffrey the elder was alive, and Geoffrey the younger, in spite of his mandate, had come out to search for him—and thereby risk the loss of the whole of his income. Of course, such madness must be put a stop to: he would look after Mollie Mallender's boy, and save him from himself. With the alertness of a mental gymnast, his active and well-trained brain was already weaving schemes, and like a character in ancient melodrama he promptly decided to "dissemble."
"By Jove! so your Uncle is actually alive, and in India! I am completely bowled out—what an amazing thing!" As he tenderly refolded the frail letter he added: "Bazaar paper, and bazaar ink. I say! if you hunt him down, you forfeit four thousand a year, eh? It's rather a wild enterprise!"
"It would be if my Uncle were alive, but I believe this travelling criminal is the man who has made away with him."
"So you are determined to run your head against a brick wall—obstinacy is a family trait."
"If you call my father's last wish a brick wall, I am here to deal with it," and he sat back, as if to study the effect of his announcement.
"Oh, well, well, poor fellow," mumbled Colonel Tallboys, "no doubt he was in a weak state."
"Bodily, yes; but his mind was stronger than it had been for a long time. He had a vivid dream about his brother." Geoffrey paused and coloured, noticing his listener's expression of amused, but tolerant, disdain. "I say! you are not laughing, are you?"