"His money matters may have fallen into a desperate condition," he
thought; "or perhaps that woman--that Mrs. Branston, is at the bottom of
the business."

He went to the cottage that morning as usual, but not with his accustomed
feeling of unalloyed happiness. The serene heaven of his tranquil life
was clouded a little by this strange conduct of John Saltram's. It
wounded him to think that his old companion was keeping a secret from
him.

"I suppose it is because I lectured him a little about Mrs. Branston the
other day," he said to himself. "The business is connected with her in
some way, I daresay, and poor Jack does not care to arouse my virtuous
indignation. That comes of taking a high moral tone with one's friend. He
swallows the pill with a decent grace at the time, and shuts one out of
his confidence ever afterwards."

Captain Sedgewick expressed himself much surprised and disappointed by
Mr. Saltram's departure. Marian said very little upon the subject. There
seemed nothing extraordinary to her in the fact that a gentleman should
be summoned to London by the claims of business.

Gilbert might have brooded longer upon the mystery involved in his
friend's conduct, but that evening's post brought him trouble in the
shape of bad news from Melbourne. His confidential clerk--an old man who
had been with his father for many years, and who knew every intricacy of
the business--wrote him a very long letter, dwelling upon the evil
fortune which attended all their Australian transactions of late, and
hinting at dishonesty and double-dealing on the part of Gilbert's cousin,