, in surprise.

He nodded.

The two men had gone off to Jasper's study, and she was alone with her
uncle.

"When I lunched with you the other day at the Savoy," he said, "I spoke
to you about your marriage, and I asked you to defer any action for a
fortnight."

She nodded.

"I was coming down to see you on that very matter," she said. "Uncle,
won't you tell me why you want me to delay my marriage for a fortnight,
and why you think I am going to get married at all?"

He did not answer immediately, but paced up and down the room.

"May," he said, "you have heard a great deal about me which is not very
flattering. I lived a very rough life in South Africa, and I only had
one friend in the world in whom I had the slightest confidence. That
friend was your father. He stood by me in my bad times. He never worried
me when I was flush of money, never denied me when I was broke. Whenever
he helped me, he was content with what reward I offered him. There was
no 'fifty-fifty' with Bill Nuttall. He was a man who had no ambition, no
avarice--the whitest man I have ever met. What I have not told you about
him is this: He and I were equal partners in a mine, the Gwelo Deep. He
had great faith in the mine, and I had none at all. I knew it to be one
of those properties you sometimes get in Rhodesia, all pocket and
outcrop. Anyway, we floated a company."

He stopped and chuckled as at an amusing memory.

"The pound shares were worth a little less than sixpence until a
fortnight ago."

He looked at her with one of those swift, penetrating glances, as though
he were anxious to discover her thoughts.

"A fortnight ago," he said, "I learned from my agent in Bulawayo that a
reef had been struck on an adjoining mine, and that the reef runs
through our property. If that is true, you will be a rich woman in your
own right, apart from the money you get from me. I cannot tell whether
it is true until I have heard from the engineers, who are now examining
the property, and I cannot know that for a fortnight. May, you are a
dear girl," he said, and laid his hand on her arm, "and I have looked
after you as though you were my own daughter. It is a happiness to me
to know that you will be a very rich woman, because your father's shares
was the only property you inherited from him. There is, however, one
curious thing about it that I cannot understand."

He walked over to the bureau, unlocked a drawer, and took out a letter.

"My agent