"Yes," replied the older soldier in a far-away voice, as if he had
mentally gone back to the results of that man's deception. "Yes, it was
successful. By the way, you say your people live down in Hertfordshire?"

"Yes."

"I once knew a girl--long ago, in my younger days--who married a man
called Agar, and went to live in Hertfordshire. The name did not strike
me until you mentioned the county. I wonder if the lady is now your
step-mother."

"My step-mother's name was Hethbridge," replied Jem Agar.

"The same. How strange!" said the General indifferently. "Well, she has
probably forgotten my existence these thirty years. She has one son, you
say?"

"Yes, Arthur. He is twenty-three--five years younger than myself."

The shifty black eyes excelled themselves at this moment in rapidity of
observation. They seemed to be full of question, of many questions, but
none were forthcoming.

"Ah!" said General Michael indifferently. "He is," pursued Jem Agar, "a
delicate fellow; does nothing; though I believe he is going to be called
to the Bar."

The General, having passed most of his life in India, where men work or
else go home, did not take in the full meaning of this; but he was keen