"I am afraid I can give you no answer, Colonel Carmichael," he said
quietly. "Since Mr. Travers has returned to Marut all control over
affairs has passed out of my hands into his. For some reason, I have
been kept in ignorance as to the progress of events, and I wait here
to-day with you as completely in the dark as any one. No doubt he will
be here in a few minutes."
"With good news, I hope," Mrs. Cary sighed. "I also am no sort of a
business woman, but I understand enough to know that if one invests
money in an honest concern one gets interest sooner or later. And so
far the Marut Company hasn't paid me a penny piece."
Nehal Singh started slightly, and his glance wandered to the red face
of the speaker with an expression that was akin to fear.
"An honest concern!" he repeated. "Do you mean that--that it is not
honest?"
Mrs. Cary beamed with recovered equanimity.
"Good gracious! How could you suppose I should mean such a horrid
thing, dear Prince! Of course everything to which you put your hand is
hall-marked. Otherwise I should never have dreamed of investing my
money in the Marut Company."
There was a silence. The Colonel drummed with his fingers on the
table, watching the native sentry who passed stolidly backward and
forward in front of the closed windows. Mrs. Cary fanned herself and
exchanged whispered comments with Mrs. Berry on the opposite side.
Beatrice remained motionless.
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