'I'm hanged if I see the necessity,' malignantly returned Slivers,
unconsciously quoting Voltaire; 'but if you do want to get into a
good thing--'

'Yes! yes!' said the other, eagerly bending forward.

'Get an interest in the Pactolus,' and the agreeable old gentleman
leaned back and laughed loudly in a raucous manner at his visitor's
discomfited look.

'You ass,' hissed Mr Villiers, between his closed teeth; 'you know
as well as I do that my infernal wife won't look at me.'

'Ho, ho!' laughed the cockatoo, raising his yellow crest in an angry
manner; 'devil take her--rather!'

'I wish he would!' muttered Villiers, fervently; then with an uneasy
glance at Billy, who sat on the old man's shoulder complacently
ruffling his feathers, he went on: 'I wish you'd screw that bird's
neck, Slivers; he's too clever by half.'

Slivers paid no attention to this, but, taking Billy off his
shoulder, placed him on the floor, then turned to his visitor and
looked at him fixedly with his bright eye in such a penetrating
manner that Villiers felt it go through him like a gimlet.

'I hate your wife,' said Slivers, after a pause.

'Why the deuce should you?' retorted Villiers, sulkily. 'You ain't
married to her.'