"Let's hear it!" he said sharply.
"I had a line from Brown and Co. to say, that my allowance ceased, from the day I came to Madras."
Colonel Tallboys almost leapt out of his chair, his face was crimson.
"You call that a clue!" he shouted, "why, man alive, I call it ruin!"
"No, not altogether," replied his companion in a steady voice, "I have a good balance in hand, and before that is exhausted, I hope to have solved the problem."
"'Pon my soul, I have no patience with you, Geoffrey," declared his cousin fiercely; then standing over him, like a little bristling terrier, he added, "Your father was undoubtedly eccentric of late years, no doubt of that—and on one subject, I honestly believe you are not sane!"
"Well, well, Fred, let us leave it at that," replied Mallender with an uneasy laugh, "don't let us talk about it any more."
"I may not talk, but I shall think," retorted Colonel Tallboys in a loud, tremulous voice, and with this parting speech he hurried from the room, overturning as he went an indignant dog, and a couple of golf-sticks.
During all these weeks, though temporarily carried away by continuous amusements, and the irresistible fascinations of Mrs. Villars, Mallender had figuratively clung to, and corresponded with Jaffer and Co.—in spite of the fact, that their answers were indefinite, and letters few and far between. As he sat in the smoking-room, the afternoon after this scene with his relative, a butler entered, salaamed, and said:
"Someone come on business to see your Honour."