And you know how kindly the world is in its comments on what it does not understand.

A rumour sprang out that Heyst, having obtained some mysterious hold on Morrison, had fastened himself on him and was sucking him dry.

Those who had traced these mutters back to their origin were very careful not to believe them.

The originator, it seems, was a certain Schomberg, a big, manly, bearded creature of the Teutonic persuasion, with an ungovernable tongue which surely must have worked on a pivot.

Whether he was a Lieutenant of the Reserve, as he declared, I don't know.