Instead, he came face to face with his enemy, Gordon Gray.
For a second he was too surprised for words.
“Well,” he asked with dignity, “why are you here?”
“Oh!—well, I happened to be near here, and I thought I’d just pay you a call. I want to see you. May I come in?”
“If you wish,” growled the old clergyman, admitting him and conducting him to the study where the lamp was lit.
Then when his visitor was in the room, he turned to him and said:
“So you have carried out your threat, Gray, and sold my houses in Totnes—eh? You’ve taken my little income from me, as that woman told me you intended.”
“I had to; I’m so hard-up. Since the war I’ve been very hard hit,” replied the man. “I’m sorry, of course.”
“Yes. I suppose you are very sorry!” sarcastically remarked the old man, pale with anger. “Once, Gray, I trusted you, and—”
“And I befriended you in consequence,” interrupted the other. “I lent you money.”