‘Oh,’ he said, ‘is that you, Paul, old fellow? Where are you?’
‘Here,’ said the voice ungraciously.
The latest arrival made his way in the direction indicated, but though the voice had sounded not more than a score of yards away, he had to call out twice or thrice, and wait for an answer. The brush was dense and tangled, and he could have lost himself for a lifetime in it.
‘Oh, there you are, Paul! Upon my word, I shouldn’t have known you.’
‘I heard you say you had a letter for me. I’d a good deal rather not have seen you, but since you are here you may as well discharge your commission, and when you’ve done that you can go.’
‘I’ve got a letter for you, Paul. It’s from poor dear Madge, and I’m bound to say that I think she’s beastly ill-used, and very unfortunate.’
‘Doubly unfortunate,’ said the camper-out—‘unfortunate in a brute of a husband and a cad of a brother. Give me the letter.’
‘Here it is, Paul. You may think what you like about me, of course, but I have travelled something like seven or eight thousand miles to find you.’
‘On Madge’s money?’ asked the other, balancing the letter in a careless grip between thumb and finger. ‘Nobody asks you to stop to hear yourself described. You were a cad from your cradle; you were a liar as soon as you could learn to lisp, and a sponge from the happy hour when you found the first fool to lend you half a crown. You needn’t wait, George, but so long as you are here I will do my best to tell you what you are. You are a fruitful theme, and I could be fluent for a week or two. Going? Well, luck go with you, of the sort you merit. I’d call you a cur, but there isn’t a cur in all the world who wouldn’t walk himself blind and lame to bite me in revenge for the insult I put upon him. Go—you infinitesimal! you epitome of unpitiable little shames!’
The bearer of the letter, who had travelled so far for so curious a welcome, had found a beaten trail which led him back to the woodland road. He had gone a score of yards by this time; but the voice pursued him—level, heavy, sonorous, driven by full lungs.