"But if it can be proved that he knew there was coal in the land, and if he bought it concealing that knowledge, surely, surely the law can make him give it back," said the simple old lady, who it would seem stood in the place of Rochester's unfortunate mother. Mr. Collins almost smiled. "Your ladyship, that would give no handle to the law. Now, for instance, if I knew that the Canadian Pacific Railway, let us say, had discovered large coal bearing lands, and if I used that private knowledge to buy your Canadian Pacific stock at, say, one hundred, and if that stock rose to three hundred, could you make me give you your stock back? Certainly not. The gain would be a perfectly legitimate product of my own sharpness." "Sharpness," said the bird woman, "that's just it. If Arthur had had even sense, to say nothing of sharpness, things would have been very different all round--all round." She protruded her head from her boa and retracted it. Jones, furious, dumb, with his hands in his pockets and his back against the window, said nothing. He never could have imagined that a baiting like this, over a matter with which he had nothing to do, could have made him feel such a fool, and such an ass. He saw at once how Rochester had been done, and he felt, against all reason, the shame that Rochester might have felt--but probably wouldn't. His uncle, the Duke of Melford, for that was the choleric one's name, his mother, the dowager Countess of Rochester, and his sister, the Hon. Venetia Birdbrook, now all rose up and got together in a covey before making their exit, and leaving this bad business and the fool who had brought it about. You can fancy their feelings. A man in Rochester's position may be anything, almost, as long as he is wealthy, but should he add the crime of poverty to his other sins he is lost indeed. And Rochester had not only flung his money away, he had flung a coal mine after it. No wonder that his uncle did not even glance at him again as he left the room, shepherding the two women before him. "It's unfortunate," said Collins, when they found themselves alone. It was the mildest thing he could say, and he said it. CHAPTER XII THE GIRL IN THE VICTORIA When Jones found himself outside the office at last, and in the bustle of Fleet Street, he turned his steps west-wards. He had almost forgotten the half formed determination to throw down his cards and get up from this strange game, which he had formed when Collins had asked him whether he would not have an interview with his wife. This coal mine business pushed everything else aside for the moment; the thought of that deal galvanized the whole business side of his nature, so that, as he would have said himself, bristles stood on it. A mine worth a million pounds, traded away for twenty five thousand dollars!