"You'd be glad to see her again, Mr. Malladale—in the flesh?" laughed Hollis.
The jeweller shook his head.
"I think not," he answered. "No, I think not, Mr. Hollis. That's an episode which I had put out of my mind—until you recalled it."
"But—your loss?" suggested Hollis. "Close on four thousand pounds, wasn't it?"
Mr. Malladale raised one of his white hands to his grey beard and coughed. It was a cough that suggested discretion, confidence, secrecy. He smiled behind his moustache, and his spectacled eyes seemed to twinkle.
"I think I may venture a little disclosure—in the company of two gentlemen learned in the law," he said. "To a solicitor whom I know very well, and to a barrister introduced by him, I think I may reveal a little secret—between ourselves and to go no further. The fact of this matter is, gentlemen—I had no loss!"
"What?" exclaimed Hollis. "No—loss?"
"Eventually," replied the jeweller. "Eventually! Indeed, to tell you the truth plain, I made my profit, and—er, something over."
Hollis looked his bewilderment.
"Do you mean that—eventually—you were paid?" he asked.