"No," snapped Castle; "I'm very busy."
"But I want to tell——"
The receiver clicked. Evan was aware of an answering sound somewhere within himself, as though the ties that bound him to honesty and good-faith had suddenly snapped.
CHAPTER XVI.
BLACKBALLED.
During the progress of the drama in which Nelson played so conspicuous a part and which he regarded as a tragedy, Sam Robb was at the Receiver-General's exchanging money for the paying-teller. He had not returned before Evan was gone from the office for good.
"What am I to do, Mr. Charon?" Nelson asked the accountant, after Inspector Castle's insult.
"Grin and bear it," repeated the accountant, thinking, no doubt, that he had hit upon a very happy phrase.
Evan felt that it would take all his moral valor to "bear it" without the "grinning." He fulfilled that latter half of Charon's command—it seemed like a command rather than a suggestion, to the bank-trained clerk—three or four years later.