'I think, somehow, that if you know Longworth you can perhaps make better
terms with him. Meanwhile I will send a letter to Wentworth. You have his
address there?'
'Yes.'
'Very well.'
Taking his pen, he dashed off the following letter:
'DEAR SIR,
'I regret to say that the mineral you left at our office yesterday is of
no value to us. We do not use mineral of this nature, and, so far as I
know, it is not used anywhere in England.
'Yours truly,
'ADAM BRAND.'
CHAPTER XIX.
The chances are that, no matter under what circumstances young Longworth
and Kenyon had first met, the former would have disliked the latter.
Although strong friendships are formed between men who are dissimilar,
it must not be forgotten that equally strong hatreds have arisen between
people merely because they were of opposite natures. No two young men
could have been more unlike each other; and as Longworth recalled the
different meetings he had had with Kenyon, he admitted to himself that he
had an extreme antipathy to the engineer. The evident friendship which
his cousin felt for Kenyon added a bitterness to this dislike which was
rapidly turning it into hate. However, he calmed down sufficiently, on
going home in the carriage, to become convinced that it was better to say
nothing about her meeting with Kenyon unless she introduced the subject.
After all, the carriage was hers, not his, and he recognised that fact.
He wondered how much Kenyon had told her of the interview at his uncle's
office. He flattered himself, however, that he knew enough of women to be
sure that she would very speedily refer to the subject, and then he hoped
to learn just how much had been said. To his surprise, his cousin said
nothing at all about the matter, neither that evening nor the next
morning, and, consequently, he went to his office in a somewhat
bewildered state of mind.
On arriving at his room in the City, he found Melville waiting for him.
Melville shook hands with young Longworth, and, taking a mineral specimen
from his pocket, placed it on the young man's desk, saying;
'I suppose you know where that comes from?'
Longworth looked at it with an air of indecision which made Melville
suspect he knew very little about it.
'I haven't the slightest idea, really.'
'No? I was told you were interested in the mine from which this was
taken. Mr. Wentworth called on me yesterday, and gave your name as one of
those who were concerned with the mine.'
'Ah, yes, I see; yes, yes, I have--some interest in the mine.'
'Well, it is about that I came to talk with you. Where is the mine
situated?'
'It is near the Ottawa River, I believe, some distance above Montreal. I
am not certain about its exact position, but it is somewhere in that
neighbourhood.'
'I thought by the way Wentworth talked it was in the United States. He
mentioned another person as being his partner in the affair; I forget
his name.'
'John Kenyon, probably.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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