e interest
in some of the personalty. I congratulated him and said I supposed this
meant that we should not have the pleasure of his company to Mur.

"Why not?" he asked. "I said I was going and I mean to go; indeed, I
signed a document to that effect."

"I daresay," I answered, "but circumstances alter cases. If I might say
so, an adventure that perhaps was good enough for a young and well-born
man of spirit and enterprise without any particular resources, is no
longer good enough for one who has the ball at his feet. Think what a
ball it is to a man of your birth, intelligence, record, and now,
great fortune come to you in youth. Why, with these advantages there
is absolutely nothing that you cannot do in England. You can go into
Parliament and rule the country; if you like you can become a peer.
You can marry any one who isn't of the blood royal; in short, with
uncommonly little effort of your own, your career is made for you. Don't
throw away a silver spoon like that in order, perhaps, to die of thirst
in the desert or be killed in a fight among unknown tribes."

"Oh, I don't know," he answered. "I never set heart much on spoons,
silver or other. When I lost this one I didn't cry, and now that I have
found it again I shan't sing. Anyway, I am going on with you, and you
can't prevent me under the agreement. Only as I have got such a lot to
leave, I suppose I had better make a will first and post it home, which
is a bore."

Just then the Professor came in, followed by an Arab thief of a dealer,
with whom he was trying to bargain for some object of antiquity. When
the dealer had been ejected and the position explained to him, Higgs,
who whatever may be his failings in small matters, is unselfish enough
in big ones, said that he agreed with me and thought that under the
circumstances, in his own interest, Orme ought to leave us and return
home.

"You may save your breath, old fellow," answered the Captain, "for this
reason if for no other," and he threw him a letter across the table,
which letter I saw afterwards. To be brief, it was from the young
lady to whom he had been engaged to be married, and who on his loss of
fortune had jilted him. Now she seemed to have changed her mind
again, and, although she did not mention the matter, it is perhaps not
uncharitable to suppose that the news of the death of the inconvenient
child had something to do with her decision.

"Have you answered this?" asked Higgs.

"No,"