ity and purer intentions than his own; that is he
pursued it in the light of his own experience and prejudices. For facts,
whatever their origin (and God only knows where they come from), can be
only tested by our own particular suspicions. Ricardo was suspicious all
round. Schomberg, such is the tonic of recovered self-esteem, Schomberg
retorted fearlessly:

"Go home? Why don't you go home? To hear your talk, you must have made
a pretty considerable pile going round winning people's money. You ought
to be ready by this time."

Ricardo stopped to look at Schomberg with surprise.

"You think yourself very clever, don't you?" he said.

Schomberg just then was so conscious of being clever that the snarling
irony left him unmoved. There was positively a smile in his noble
Teutonic beard, the first smile for weeks. He was in a felicitous vein.

"How do you know that he wasn't thinking of going home? As a matter of
fact, he was on his way home."

"And how do I know that you are not amusing yourself by spinning out
a blamed fairy tale?" interrupted Ricardo roughly. "I wonder at myself
listening to the silly rot!"

Schomberg received this turn of temper unmoved. He did not require to be
very subtly observant to notice that he had managed to arouse some sort
of feeling, perhaps of greed, in Ricardo's breast.

"You won't believe me? Well! You can ask anybody that comes here if
that--that Swede hadn't got as far as this house on his way home. Why
should he turn up here if not for that? You ask anybody."

"Ask, indeed!" returned the other. "Catch me asking at large about a man
I mean to drop on! Such jobs must be done on the quiet--or not at all."

The peculiar intonation of the last phrase touched the nape of
Schomberg's neck with a chill. He cleared his throat slightly and looked
away as though he had heard something indelicate. Then, with a jump as
it were:

"Of course he didn't tell me. Is it likely? But haven't I got eyes?
Haven't I got my common sense to tell me? I can see through people. By
the same token, he called on the Tesmans. Why did he call on the Tesmans
two days running, eh? You don't know? You can't tell?"

He waited complacently till Ricardo had finished swearing quite openly
at him for a confounded chatterer, and then went on:

"A fellow doesn't go to a counting-house in business hours for a chat
about the weather, two days running. Then why? To close his account with
them one day, and to get his m