The lawyer sniffed the breeze and closed his eyes in ecstasy.
"Oh, come now, Peter ...! I haven't enjoyed a day like this in years."
"You don't suppose I brought you along to have you enjoy yourself?" bluntly.
"No, I wouldn't credit you with that nobility of character, Peter. But I'm here no matter what your purpose may have been, and I propose to enjoy myself."
The multi-millionaire received this remark in silence. Colonel Morehead was one of the few independent men he had ever met. Wilkinson could never quite make him out, and therefore was afraid of him. As a matter of fact, Morehead's code was a simple one: he merely did his duty towards his clients in his own way; and if they didn't like it, that was their affair and not his. His acquired indifference was his greatest capital.
"At any rate," growled his host, "I suppose I'm paying you by the minute all the time you're here."
"Presume you are, Peter," sweetly answered the Colonel; "and that's a pleasure, too, to both of us, I'm sure."
"Business before pleasure is my motto, you know," resumed Wilkinson. "I brought you out here to have a quiet talk where even Flomerfelt or Patrick Durand cannot hear it. I haven't been able to pin you down to my case since my conviction. Look here, Morehead," he went on appealingly, "we'll reverse this sentence a hundred times over, eh?"
The Colonel, who had been sprawling lazily across his steamer chair, at this drew himself up to a sitting posture.