“Rangoon! So am I. An amazing coincidence. Now come and sit down at once and tell me all about yourself.”
“I think you have heard all there is to know.”
“Yes; that you had become so distant and reserved and so like an oyster in its shell, and there was no getting you to ‘Tremenheere.’”
“But I was not my own master—I was in an office.”
“My dear boy, where there’s a will there’s a way.”
“There is no way of taking leave—unless you wish to get the key of the street,” he retorted with a laugh.
“And what takes you to Rangoon?”
“A post in a big mercantile house. I’ve to thank Mr. Tremenheere: I owe it to his interest—it’s a splendid chance for me.”
“Well, I’m sure you deserve it, my dear boy, if ever anyone did. You don’t ask why I am on the high seas. I am en route, to Mandalay—Ella is there. After I’ve paid her a visit, I’m going on to India, to stay with your old friend Geoffrey. He and you are about the same age, are you not?”
“Yes; where is he now?”