It is, I fancy, fifteen years since Colonel Barrington saw you, but he desired me to find means of tracing your Canadian record, and did not seem pleased with it.

Nor, at the risk of offending you, could I deem him unduly prejudiced." "In fact," said Winston dryly, "this man who has not seen me for fifteen years is desirous of withholding what is mine from me at almost any cost." The lawyer nodded.

"There is nothing to be gained by endeavoring to controvert it.

Colonel Barrington is also, as you know, a somewhat determined gentleman." Winston laughed, for he was essentially a stubborn man, and felt little kindliness towards any one connected with Courthorne, as the Colonel evidently was.
"I fancy I am not entirely unlike him in that respect," he said.

"What you have told me makes me the more determined to follow my own inclination.