"I scarcely think it does."
"Then, if I had any other reasons, though I am not exactly admitting it, they concern myself alone."
Brown made a little gesture. "Well," he said, "I don't suppose it matters in the meanwhile. You have once or twice asked my advice, and now you have some £7,000, and, I understand, don't know how to lay it out to the best advantage."
"Exactly. I don't feel the least desire to undertake the heaving off of any more steamers."
Brown leaned forward, and tapped his hand with the glasses. "An enterprising man could do a good deal with £7,000. It would, for example, buy him, we'll call it, a third share in a certain rather profitable fruit and wine business in Las Palmas. That is, of course, on the understanding that he devoted his whole time and energy to it."
Austin gazed at him in blank astonishment for a moment or two, and then a red flush crept into his face.
"I fancy a third share in the business you are evidently alluding to would be worth a good deal more than that," he said.
"Probably," said Brown, with a trace of dryness. "That is, I might get more for it, but I have no intention of offering it to everybody. I would like to ask your careful attention for a minute or two, Mr. Austin."
He stopped a moment, and his tone had changed when he proceeded. "There is nothing to be gained by hiding the fact that I am getting old, and I begin to feel that I would like to take my life a little more easily," he said. "Indeed, I want somebody I could have confidence in to do the hardest work for me. I made the business—and I am a little proud of it. It would not please me to let go of it altogether—and, as a matter of fact, I have been warned that if I retired to England, the climate would probably shorten my life for me. You are, perhaps, aware that I came out to the Canaries originally because my constitution is not an excellent one."
He stopped again, and added, with a certain significance: "I have, however, been told that my ailments are not likely to prove hereditary. Well, as I mentioned, I do not want to give the business up entirely, and it would be a matter of grief to me to see it go to pieces in the hands of an incompetent manager. That is why I have made you the offer."