“I cannot retail to you all their little tattle, Sir Gordon. Look here, sir, what do you mean? Speak out.”
Sir Gordon grew red and was silent for a few minutes.
“I will be plain, Bayle,” he said at last. “The fact is I am very uneasy.”
“About Hallam?”
“Yes. He occupies a position of great trust.”
“But surely Mr Trampleasure shares it.”
“Trampleasure shares nothing. He’s a mere dummy: a bank ornament. There, I don’t say I suspect Hallam, but I cannot help seeing that he is living far beyond his means.”
“But you have the books—the statements?”
“Yes; and everything is perfectly correct. I do know something about figures, and at our last audit there was not a penny wrong.”
Bayle drew a breath full of relief.