He was one of the least men ever seen, but he had a vast amount of work in him. Mr. Hurst explained that Jenner was only a clerk, but a very efficient one.
"He'd do twice the amount of work that I could, Yorke: I'm slow and sure; Jenner is sure and quick. How long have you been home from Port Natal?"
"Don't bother about that now," said Roland.
"Did you make your fortune out there?"
"What a senseless question! If I'd made a fortune there, it stands to reason I should not have come into an office here."
"How was I to know? You might have made a fortune and dissipated it?"
"Dissipated it in what?" cried Roland, with wide-open eyes. And to Mr. Hurst, who had gained some knowledge of what is called life, the look and the question bore earnest that Roland Yorke, in spite of his travelling experiences, was not much tainted by the world and its ways.
"Oh, in many things. Horse-racing, for instance."
Roland threw back his head in the old emphatic manner. "If ever I do get a fortune, Jos,--which appears about as likely as that Port Natal and Ireland should join hands and spin a waltz with each other--I'll take care of it."
Possibly in the notion occurring to him that idleness was certainly not the best way to acquire a fortune, Roland tilted his stool on its even legs, and began to work in earnest. When he had accomplished two lines, he took it to the manager.