CHAPTER XV
Mr. Adolphus Swann spent a very agreeable afternoon after his interview with Nathan Smith in refusing to satisfy what he termed the idle curiosity of his partner. The secret of Captain Nugent's whereabouts, he declared, was not to be told to everybody, but was to be confided by a man of insinuating address and appearance—here he looked at himself in a hand-glass—to Miss Nugent. To be broken to her by a man with no ulterior motives for his visit; a man in the prime of life, but not too old for a little tender sympathy.
“I had hoped to have gone this afternoon,” he said, with a glance at the clock; “but I'm afraid I can't get away. Have you got much to do, Hardy?”
“No,” said his partner, briskly. “I've finished.”
“Then perhaps you wouldn't mind doing my work for me, so that I can go?” said Mr. Swann, mildly.
Hardy played with his pen. The senior partner had been amusing himself at his expense for some time, and in the hope of a favour at his hands he had endured it with unusual patience.
“Four o'clock,” murmured the senior partner; “hadn't you better see about making yourself presentable, Hardy?”
