Page:Robert Barr - Lord Stranleigh Philanthropist.djvu/262

 purer and better for a night spent in the the healthful, innocent country."

Mackeller made a gesture of impatience. He was always a serious man, who would endure a certain amount of flippancy, but speedily knew when he had had enough. He said very slowly, measuring off his words, as if explaining a simple problem to a child:—

"My dear Lord Stranleigh, the tyranny of business demands that I should be in my office at nine o'clock to-morrow morning."

"Oh, you're just saying that to seem important. It's all brag. If you weren't Scotch, I should go so far as to say it was bounce. One difference between us is that I know what I'm talking about, and you don't. This visit of yours, it becomes more and more apparent to me, is not one of friendship, as might have been the case."

"If I were not a friend of yours. Lord Stranleigh, I shouldn't be here."

"Evasion, evasion, Peter. What I mean is that you call on business. Is not that so?"

"Certainly it is so."

"Very well. You do not wish to return to London without accomplishing that quest on which you come?"