"Why, do you mean--But never mind; that's probably none of my business; I don't see how you could ever think it was any of yours. Oh, now, please keep your seat! No, at least, I don't blame him merely for leaving her; a politician's a soldier; he can't stop to comfort the sick. But he should have declined your offer to stay with her, in _italics_, John, and sent for me!" "Sent for--Oh, imagine him! Besides, General Halliday, Jeff-Jack knew my offer was to myself; not to him at all, sir! But he saw another thing--about me--as plainly as I did; yes, plainer!" "I could do that myself, John. What was it--this time?" "He saw my sober second thought had come!" "H--, I wish I had his eyes! Did he say so? Wha'd he say?" "He said what wasn't true." The old warrior smiled satirically. "What was it?" "'Ever mind what it was! I'm talked out." "My dear fellow, so am I! John, honestly, I thank you for the--pardon me--the unusual patience with which you've taken my hard words." The speaker gripped his hearer's knee. "And you really think you've finished your first great campaign of mistakes--eh?" "Yes!" They rose, laughing. "Yes, and I've every reason to hope it's my last." The General proposed drinks, but John hadn't time, and they only swapped cigars. "I hear you leave us again this evening," said the General. "No; they'd like me to go, but I'm--I'm very tired and anyhow----" "You're wha-at? Tired! Why, John--O no, you don't mean tired, you mean insa-ane! Why, sir, that's going straight back on everything you've been saying! John, we're not going to stand this." The General grew red. "Whom do you mean by 'we,' General?" Both men were forgetting to smoke. "Everybody, sir! everybody in Suez with whom you have any relations? Why, look at it yourself! For a week running you neglect your own interests and your company's business to do--what? Just what you'd do if you were still under an infatuation which you've openly confessed for years!" "But which, General Halliday, I tell you again----" "Telling won't do, sir, when doing tells another story. Here are your directors astonished and vexed at you for coming back with not a word as to why you've come. O, how do I know it? It's the talk o' the town! They bid you go back to the field of work you chose yourself, and you tell _them_--business men--financiers--that you're 'tired and anyhow----' By Jupiter! John March----" "General, stop! I'll manage my own business my own way, sir! It's no choice of mine to speak so to you, General Halliday, but I swear I'll not widen my confidences--no, nor modify my comings and goings--to provide against the looks of things. It's the culpable who are careful, sir." "Yes--yes--and 'the simple pass on and are punished.' I don't ask you to widen your confidences to include me, John." "Shan't widen them to include anyone, under pressure, General. But it's a pity when you know so much about these things, you don't know more."