Even Selina was staggered. Mrs. Bullsom was positively frightened.
"Mr. Bullsom!" she said. "Peter, you ain't got as much as that? Don't tell me!"
"I am worth to-day," Mr. Bullsom said, solemnly, "at least five hundred thousand pounds."
"Peter," Mrs. Bullsom gasped, "has it been come by honest?"
Mr. Bullsom smiled in a superior way.
"I made it," he answered, "by locking up forty thousand, more than half of what I was worth, for five years. But I knew what I was about, and so did the others. Mason made nearly as much as I did."
Selina looked at her father with a new respect. He rose and brushed the ashes of his cigar from his waistcoat.
"Now I'm off," he declared. "Brooks and I will be back about seven, and I shall try and get him to sleep here. Fix yourselves up quiet and ladylike, you girls. Good-bye, mother."
* * * * *
"We have about an hour before dinner," Mr. Bullsom remarked, sinking into his most comfortable chair and lighting a cigar. "Just time for a comfortable chat. You'll smoke, Brooks, won't you?"