"But what are they?" persisted Mr. Clutterbuck.
"Oh, ruby mines!" almost shouted William Bailey.
"Yes, certainly, but where?"
"In Anapootra of course," said Bailey.
Mr. Clutterbuck rose to go with a joyless face.
"You come back to me when it begins to work, and I'll see you through," were the last words of William Bailey, and his guest heard them ringing in his ears as he went mournfully to the train.
In The Plâs that very evening he tried it on. They were at their lonely meal, all three, Charlie Fitzgerald, who inwardly wished he had got away, Mrs. Clutterbuck, and the master of the house. They dared not have friends under such a cloud. Mr. Clutterbuck said casually to Mrs. Clutterbuck:
"My dear, do you know anything of the Anapootra Ruby Mines?"
"No," said Mrs. Clutterbuck sharply, and at the same time in a manner that clearly showed she was bored. The City had always wearied her since her husband's success; she hardly thought it quite the thing to speak of it before Charlie Fitzgerald. As for that well-born youth, he remained quite silent and ate with singular rapidity the Mousseline Braganza à la Polignac which he had before him.