"Well, it's good pluck of him if he wants to marry her. What's the odds if he is a Prince? Live and let live, I say."
Pye's little squirrel head turned round and he stared for a moment at the speaker, then it came back again.
"You are uncommonly polite," said Holgate irritably.
"I'm sorry. I thought I recognised that voice," said the little man sweetly. "One gets echoes everywhere. I was going to say we took you for granted, doctor."
"It's good of you," said I. "But will Mr. Morland?"
"I can practically answer for my employer; I can't say anything about Mr. Morland, who has, however, authorised us to appoint."
"That knowledge is quite out of my province," said the squirrel briefly.
When one came to think of it, it was almost a snub, and I had never any patience for these legal silences. As he shut his jaws he looked a man who could keep a secret, and knew his own mind. Yet he had been so easily familiar that I flushed with resentment. Confound these little professional tricks and solemnities! We were meeting on another ground than lawyer and client.
"I dare say it will be within the cabin-boy's province to-morrow," said I, somewhat sharply.
"Very likely," he assented, and Holgate, who had turned at my tone, exchanged a glance with him.
"Mr. Pye is fond of keeping his own counsel," said the third officer in his slow voice, "and I'm not sure he isn't right, being a lawyer."
"But he isn't a lawyer here," I protested.
Pye smiled. "No; I'm not," he said, "and please don't remind me of it"; at which we all laughed and grew friendly again. "Well, this is a funny sort of tea for me," said the clerk presently. "I generally patronise the A.B.C.," and he rose to go.
Holgate did not move, but sat staring at the fire, which shone on his broad placid face. "I knew a man once," he observed, "who kept his own counsel."
"I hope he was a lawyer," said Pye humourously.
"No; he was a steward--the steward of an estate in the North. In the hills was the wealth of a millionaire; coal, doctor," Holgate looked at me. "And he kept his counsel and held his tongue."
"Oh, a little syndicate succeeded in buying it from the owner, and now it's a seven-figure affair."
His face had no expression of inquiry or of inviting comment. He had simply stated history, but I was moved to say flippantly,