Acton laid a handful of cigars on the table, and drew out a chair for Nasmyth.
“Well,” he replied reflectively, “there is a good deal in this country that would interest a sensible man, but I’m not sure that’s exactly what has kept Mr. Wisbech so long in Victoria. I’ve a point or two to mention later, but I’ll let him speak first. It’s his affair.”
Nasmyth sat down, and he did not immediately notice that while Acton had placed his chair where the light struck full upon his face, Wisbech sat a little farther back in the shadow cast by the shade of the lamp. After a moment Acton sought the dimmer part of the room. Wisbech turned to Nasmyth.
“I understand that you expect to marry Miss Hamilton by-and-by,” he said. “No doubt you have thought 261 over the question of what you’re going to keep a wife on?”
“I admit that it’s one that has caused me a good deal of anxiety;” and Nasmyth leaned forward, with his elbows on the table. “Still, it hasn’t troubled me quite so much of late. If I succeed with the scheme I have in hand, it will bring me money enough to make a start with a larger venture of the kind, or to enable me to undertake ranching on a reasonably extensive scale. When the land is ready for cultivation, and you haven’t to face the initial cost of getting rid of heavy timber, the business is a profitable one.”
“It is possible that Miss Hamilton would not care to live at even a tolerably extensive ranch. She has been accustomed to comfort of every kind and cheerful society, and there can’t be very much of either in the Bush; while, if you undertake any further work of the kind you suggest, it would be a few years before you made your mark. Now, I’m not sure it would be reasonable to expect a young woman like Miss Hamilton to wait indefinitely.”
Nasmyth flushed a little. “I think,” he replied, “that is a question which concerns Miss Hamilton and me alone.”
Acton leaned forward in his chair. “Mrs. Acton seems to fancy it concerns her, too. In fact, that’s one reason why I wrote to you. Well, I’m going to lay before you a business proposition. You have probably heard of the Hecla Mineral Exploitation concern? It’s run by two friends of mine, who have made a great deal of money out of their claims. They’re getting elderly, and are open to take in a younger man––a man of education, who has some acquaintance with the work that’s done in the Bush. He must take hold now, and hold stock in the concern. Here’s the last letter they wrote me.”
He passed it across to Nasmyth, whose face grew 262 eager, and then suddenly hardened again. The concern in question was, as he had heard, one of excellent repute, and supposed to be carrying on a profitable mining business.
“It’s out of the question that I should raise the capital,” he said.