"If ever you visit Hartledon again!" echoed Mr. Carr. "Unless you leave the country—as I advise you to do—you cannot help visiting Hartledon."
"Well, I would almost as soon be hanged!" cried Val. "And now, what do you want me for, and why have you kept me here?"
Mr. Carr drew his chair nearer to Lord Hartledon. They alone knew their own troubles, and sat talking long after the afternoon was over. Mr. Taylor came to the room; it was past his usual hour of departure.
"I suppose I can go, sir?"
"Not just yet," replied Mr. Carr.
Hartledon took out his watch, and wondered whether it had been galloping, when he saw how late it was. "You'll come home and dine with me, Carr?"
"I'll follow you, if you like," was the reply. "I have a matter or two to attend to first."
A few minutes more, and Lord Hartledon and his care went out. Mr. Carr called in his clerk.
"I want to know how you came to learn that the man I asked you about, Gordon, was employed by Kedge and Reck?"
"I heard it through a man named Druitt," was the ready answer. "Happening to ask him—as I did several people—whether he knew any George Gordon, he at once said that a man of that name was at Kedge and Reck's, where Druitt himself had been temporarily employed."