Rayner had retreated into the depths of the bandy before he ventured to make any reply.
"So that's Dr. Campbell, is it? Not a very formidable looking person! I should say, Zynool, that you're a match for that little man with the hollow chest," he said, with a careless laugh as he settled himself among the cushions, while Zynool's dark face filled the window.
Rayner was longing to ask him the question which he was anxiously asking himself. "Had Mark caught sight of him at the Mussulman's door?" He fervently hoped not, and made an absent, formal salaam as he took leave of his host.
He congratulated himself that the two gentlemen, being on foot, were probably going to the dispensary while their carriage waited near, and that there would be no risk of his meeting them. He was therefore not a little chagrined when the first person he saw standing on the platform was the Assistant-Collector.
Perceiving that an encounter was inevitable, Rayner went forward with a gracious smile.
"Who would have thought of seeing you here, Cheveril!"
"Why, I should rather say, who would have thought of seeing you at our little Puranapore," responded Mark, with that direct look in his eye which had already annoyed Rayner more than once.
"To a dead certainty he saw me at Zynool's door," thought Rayner, who replied lightly, "Business, sir, business! Trying to get that fellow Zynool to pay up what he owes me. He happened to be one of my Puranapore clients before my last furlough. We barristers don't always get paid in advance, I assure you!"
Mark recalled with discomfort Mr. Worsley's remark as to Zynool having been helped by a "shady pleader," but he was glad to dismiss the topic for the present by polite enquiries after Mrs. Rayner.
"Oh, Hester is as fit as a fiddle! Going in for no end of dissipation, and still keeps her English roses," her husband replied briskly. "Come and see for yourself, Cheveril! My wife was a bit disappointed that you declined all our invitations."