one is accustomed to in England. Here in London a man is
nowhere if he takes his wife back. Nobody knows her, because there
are plenty to know of another sort. But there things are not quite
so strict. Of course she oughtn't to have gone off with Atkinson;--a
vulgar low fellow, too."

"And you oughtn't to have licked her."

"That's just it. It was tit for tat, I think. That's the way I look
at it. At any rate we are living together now, and no one can say
we're not man and wife."

"There'll be a deal of trouble saved in that way."

"A great deal. We are man and wife, and can begin again as though
nothing had happened. No one can say that black's the white of our
eye. She'll take to those darling children as though nothing had
happened. You can't conceive how anxious she is to get back to them.
And there's no other impediment. That's a comfort."

"Another impediment would have upset you rather?"

"I couldn't have put up with that." Mr Fitzwalker Tookey looked very
grave and high-minded as he made the assertion. "But there's nothing
of that kind. It's all open sailing. Now,--what are we to live upon,
just for a beginning?"

"You have means out there."

"Not as things are at present,--I am sorry to say. To tell the truth,
my third share of the old Stick-in-the-Mud is gone. I had to raise
money when it was desirable that I should come with you."

"Not on my account."

"And then I did owe something. At any rate, it's all gone now. I
should find myself stranded at Kimberley without a red cent."

"What can I do?"

"Well,--I will explain. Poker & Hodge will buy your shares for the
sum named. Joshua Poker, who is out there, has got my third share.
Poker & Hodge have the money down, and when I have arranged the sale,
will undertake to give me the agency at one per cent on the whole
take for three years certain. That'll be L1000 a-year, and it's odd
if I can't float myself again in that time." Gordon stood silent,
scratching his head. "Or if you'd give me the agency on the same
terms, it would be the same thing. I don't care a straw for Poker &
Hodge."

"I daresay not."

"But you'd find me as true as steel."

"What little good I did at the Fields I did by looking after my own
business."

"Then what do you propose? Let Poker & Hodge have them, and I shall
bless you for ever." To this mild appeal Mr Tookey had been brought
by the manner in which John Gordon had scratched his head. "I think
you are bound to do