"I returned by way of Calais," was the quick reply.
"Ah, that explains. I was curious to have a little further talk with you. What you said about the lode excited me a great deal."
"I have little doubt of it."
"I own I have no claim upon you," Sir John went on, without heeding the interruption. "Still, keeping the knowledge to yourself can do you no good."
"That is quite true."
"While to me it would be everything."
"It might be a bad thing. In the past, excuse me for saying it, you have used your wealth and your influence neither wisely nor well. In fact, you have prostituted both to selfish and unworthy ends."
"I have been foolish, I own, and I have had to pay dearly for it. You think I pressed your father hard, but I was hard pressed myself. If I hadn't allowed myself to drift into the hands of those villainous Jews I should have been a better man."
"But are you not in their hands still?"
"Well, yes, up to a certain point I am. At present they are practically running the estates."