This gave me an opening to satisfy my curiosity.
"I understood you could have gone to Persia."
He frowned and tugged his red beard. "How did you know that?"
"Arbuthnot—" I began.
"Arbuthnot?" he boomed angrily. "What the blazes does he mean by telling you about my affairs? I'll punch his damned head!"
"Don't," said I. "Your hands are so big and he's so small. You might hurt him."
"I'd like to hurt him. Why can't he keep his infernal tongue quiet?"
He proceeded to wither up the soul of Arbuthnot with awful anathema. Then in his infantile way he shouted: "I didn't want any of you to know anything about it."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I didn't."