'Well, considering the article which appeared in the morning, and considering also the exhibition I made of myself in attempting to explain the merits of the mine, I think things went off rather smoothly.'
'So do I. It doesn't strike you that they went off a little too smoothly, does it?'
'What do you mean?'
'I don't know exactly what I mean. I merely wanted to get your own opinion about it. You see, I have attended a great many gatherings of this sort, and it struck me there was a certain cut-and-driedness about the meeting. I can't say whether it impressed me favourably or unfavourably, but I noticed it.'
'I still don't understand what you mean.'
'Well, as a general thing in such meetings, when a man gets up and proposes a certain action there is some opposition, or somebody has a suggestion to make, or something better to propose—or thinks he has—and so there is a good deal of talk. Now, when King got up and proposed calmly that Melville should go to America, it appeared to me rather an extraordinary thing to do, unless he had consulted Melville beforehand.'
'Perhaps he had done so.'
'Yes, perhaps. What do you think of it all?'
Kenyon mused for a moment before he replied:
'As I said before, I thought things went off very smoothly. Whom do you suspect—young Longworth?'