“Sit opposite to me, my friend,” he said.  “We will talk together.”

Dominey obeyed a little sullenly.  His companion, however, ignored his demeanour.

“Now, my friend,” he said, beating upon the palm of one hand with the forefinger of his other, “I am a man of commerce and I do things in a business way.  Let us take stock of our position.  Three months ago this very week, we met by appointment at a certain hotel in Cape Town.”

“Only three months,” Dominey muttered.

“We were unknown to one another,” Seaman continued.  “I had only heard of the Baron Von Ragastein as a devoted German citizen and patriot, engaged in an important enterprise in East Africa by special intercession of the Kaiser, on account of a certain unfortunate happening in Hungary.”

“I killed a man in a duel,” Dominey said slowly, with his eyes fixed upon his companion’s.  “It was not an unforgivable act.”

“There are duels and duels.  A fight between two young men, in defence of the honour of or to gain the favour of a young lady in their own station of life, has never been against the conventions of the Court.  On the other hand, to become the lover of the wife of one of the greatest nobles in Hungary, and to secure possession by killing the husband in the duel which his honour makes a necessity is looked upon very differently.”

“I had no wish to kill the Prince,” Dominey protested, “nor was it at my desire that we met at all.  The Prince fought like a madman and slipped, after a wild lunge, on to the point of my stationary sword.”

“Let that pass,” Seaman said.  “I am not of your order and I probably do not understand the etiquette of these matters.  I simply look upon you as a culprit in the eyes of our master, and I feel that he has a right to demand from you much in the way of personal sacrifice.”

“Perhaps you will tell me,” Dominey demanded, “what more he would have?  I have spent weary years in a godless and fever-ridden country, raising up for our arms a great troop of natives.  I have undertaken other political commissions in the Colony which may bear fruit.  I am to take up the work for which I was originally intended, for which I was given an English education.  I am to repair to England, and, under such identity as I might assume after consultation with you at Cape Town, I am to render myself so far as possible a persona grata in that country.  I do not wait for our meeting.  I see a great chance and I make use of it.  I transform myself into an English country gentleman, and I think you will admit that I have done so with great success.”

“All that you say is granted,” Seaman agreed.  “You met me at Cape Town in your new identity, and you certainly seemed to wear it wonderfully.  You have made it uncommonly expensive, but we do not grudge money.”

“I could not return home to a poverty-stricken domain,” Dominey pointed out.  “I should have held no place whatever in English social life, and I should have received no welcome from those with whom I imagine you desire me to stand well.”