“I replied that I should be greatly obliged; but, in the first place, as a stranger, would count it a favour to be told of some decent lodging for such time as I should be detained in Bombay.

“Mr. Sanderson pondered again, tapped the floor with his foot, pulled his short crop of sandy whiskers, and said—­

“’Our business may detain us, for aught I know, long into the night, Mr. Trenoweth.  Ye would be doing me a favour if ye stayed with me for a day or two.  I am a bachelor, and live as one.  So much the better, eh?  If you will get your boxes sent up to Craigie Cottage, Malabar Hill—­any one will tell ye where Elihu Sanderson lives—­I will try to make you comfortable.  You are wondering at the name ’Craigie Cottage’—­another crotchet of my father’s.  He was a Scotchman, I’d have ye know; and so am I, for that matter, though I never saw Scotch soil, being that prodigious phenomenon, a British child successfully reared in India.  But I hope to set foot there some day, please God!  Save us! how I am talking, and in office hours, too!  Good-bye, Mr. Trenoweth, and’—­once more his eyes twinkled as I thanked him and made for the door—­’I would to Heaven ye were a Scotchman!’

“Although verily broiled with the heat, I spent the rest of the day in sauntering about the city and drinking in its marvels until the time when I was due to present myself at Craigie Cottage.  Following the men who carried my box, I discovered it without difficulty, though very unlike any cottage that came within my recollection.  Indeed, it is a large villa, most richly furnished, and crowded with such numbers of black servants, that it must go hard with them to find enough to do.  That, however, is none of my business, and Mr. Sanderson does not seem the man to spend his money wastefully; so I suppose wages to be very low here.

“Mr. Sanderson received me hospitably, and entertained me to a most agreeable meal, though the dishes were somewhat hotly seasoned, and the number of servants again gave me some uneasiness.  But when, after dinner, we sat and smoked out on the balcony and watched the still gardens, the glimmering houses and, above all, the noble bay sleeping beneath the gentle shadow of the night, I confess to a feeling that, after all, man is at home wherever Nature smiles so kindly.  The hush of the hour was upon me, and made me disinclined to speak lest its spell should be broken—­disinclined to do anything but watch the smoke-wreaths as they floated out upon the tranquil air.”

“Mr. Sanderson broke the silence.

“‘You have not been long in coming.’

“‘Did you not expect me so soon?’

“‘Why, you see, I had not read your father’s Will.’

“I explained to him as briefly as I could the reasons which drove me to leave Lantrig.  He listened in silence, and then said, after a pause—­

“‘You have not, then, undertaken this lightly?’

“’As Heaven is my witness, no, whether there be anything in this business or not.’