'Rowley,' said I, 'your Viscount is a made man.'
'Why, we both are, sir,' said Rowley.
'Yes, both,' said I; 'and you shall dance at the wedding;' and I
flung at his head a bundle of bank notes, and had just followed it
up with a handful of guineas, when the door opened, and Mr. Romaine
appeared upon the threshold.
CHAPTER XVIII--MR. ROMAINE CALLS ME NAMES
Feeling very much of a fool to be thus taken by surprise, I
scrambled to my feet and hastened to make my visitor welcome. He
did not refuse me his hand; but he gave it with a coldness and
distance for which I was quite unprepared, and his countenance, as
he looked on me, was marked in a strong degree with concern and
severity.
'So, sir, I find you here?' said he, in tones of little
encouragement. 'Is that you, George? You can run away; I have
business with your master.'
He showed Rowley out, and locked the door behind him. Then he sat
down in an armchair on one side of the fire, and looked at me with
uncompromising sternness.
'I am hesitating how to begin,' said he. 'In this singular
labyrinth of blunders and difficulties that you have prepared for
us, I am positively hesitating where to begin. It will perhaps be
best that you should read, first of all, this paragraph.' And he
handed over to me a newspaper.
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