been going on for two years now, have they not? You began by losing a
large sum in South Africans--"

"We began," corrected Mr. Taynton, gently. He was looking at the other
quite calmly; his face expressed no surprise at all; if there was
anything in his expression beyond that of quiet kindness, it was
perhaps pity.

"I said 'you,'" said Mills in a hectoring tone, "and I will soon explain
why. You lost a large sum in South Africans, but won it back again in
Americans. You then again, and again contrary to my advice, embarked in
perfect wild-cat affairs, which ended in our--I say 'our' here--getting
severely scratched and mauled. Altogether you have frittered away
£30,000, and have placed the remaining ten in a venture which to my mind
is as wild as all the rest of your unfortunate ventures. These
speculations have, almost without exception, been choices of your own,
not mine. That was _one_ of the reasons why I said 'you,' not 'we.'"

He paused a moment.

"Another reason is," he said, "because without any exception the
transactions have taken place on your advice and in your name, not in
mine."

That was a sufficiently meaning statement, but Mills did not wish his
partner to be under any misapprehension as to what he implied.

"In other words," he said, "I can deny absolutely all knowledge of the
whole of those operations."