'Good morning, Mr Guy. You're looking very brown.'
The words seemed to come from him almost before he knew it, on the spur of the moment, as if the presence of a third person lent them a special significance. Reclining in the only armchair the room contained was a young gentleman of about Mr Holland's own age. He was well dressed, good looking, very much at his ease, and he regarded Mr Holland with a suggestion of amusement which seemed somehow to be very much in character.
'In questions of feeling is brown the equivalent of blue?'
Mr Holland's bearing was not so genial as the other's.
'Nor, my dear Guy, did I expect to see you. I did not even wish to.'
'It is Mr Collyer's fault that I am here, not mine. I should have been content never to set eyes on you again; and as for being in the same room with you--'
He left his sentence unfinished, with a little airy movement of his hand, which seemed to round it off with a sting. He continued to smile, although Mr Holland regarded him for a moment with eyes which were very far from smiling. The newcomer turned to the solicitor.
'I presume, Mr Guy, that you had my letter nearly three months ago.'
'I had it this morning. I only came back from Africa last night.'
'From Africa? I was not aware you had gone so far.'
The interpolation came from the young gentleman in the arm-chair. The solicitor went on.
'The only address I had was the one in Craven Street. As my letter did not come back I supposed it had reached you safely; but that, for reasons of your own, you chose to take no notice of it. You know, Mr Guy, that in such matters you are a little erratic.'
'I know. You needn't remind me. So my uncle is dead. Of what did he die?'
'The immediate cause was apoplexy, brought on, it is to be feared, by something which happened on the afternoon of his decease.'
The young gentleman in the arm-chair struck in.
'He was thrashed within an inch of his life, and very properly he was served.'
'On the steps of the Hôtel des Anglais at Nice.'
'Good God! I thought I knew the place; of course it was the Hôtel des Anglais; it's--it's past believing.'
The solicitor misapprehended the cause of Mr Holland's excitement.
'It does seem almost incredible; none the less it is a lamentable fact.'