At six o'clock Williamson went into Silwood's room with the letters; he placed them silently before his master, who read them over rapidly, and then affixed the firm's signature in his careful, small handwriting. Williamson stood waiting, while he tried to read his master's face, but Silwood's air was perfectly inscrutable. "I shall not go at once," said Silwood. "I have not quite finished; but there is no need for any one to stay." He gathered the letters together in a bunch, and passed them on to Williamson. "By the way," he asked, looking at the clerk with a sharp glance, "how does Mr. Eversleigh strike you? I'm afraid he's not very well." "I thought he seemed poorly--very poorly," replied Williamson. "I felt very sorry for him, and I ventured to suggest--having been with the firm so many years, sir--to him that he needed a holiday." "You did! That was good. It's my own idea, too. And what did he say?" "He said he was all right, or soon would be; there was nothing much the matter with him. Said it was the heat." "But about taking a holiday?" "He said it was not at all necessary." "Well, I agree with you, Mr. Williamson. It seems to me that he does need a change. I told him that also. I urged him to take a month off, but he won't hear of it. He keeps on saying he is not ill really--only a bit out of sorts owing to the hot weather. And it is hot, isn't it? I must confess I feel this frightful heat very much; the office is horribly close. Unless the weather becomes cooler, I declare I shall require a holiday myself. And if Mr. Eversleigh still persists in refusing a holiday--well, I believe I shall take one. I haven't had a real vacation for a very long time. But I had much rather he went." "You certainly have had no holiday, Mr. Silwood, for a long time--three or four years, it must be," said Williamson, immensely surprised at the turn the conversation had taken. "When would you think of going, sir?" "Oh, I haven't thought much about it all," replied Silwood; "my taking a holiday is only a possibility. Still, if this heat does not moderate, I should not wonder if I did go. But it's not settled." "I understand, sir," said Williamson, who, as a matter of fact, was completely mystified. "What's up now?" he asked himself. Still, on reflection, he had to admit there was no reason why Silwood should not take a holiday if he wished to do so. "That's all, I think," said Silwood; and with a nod he dismissed the head-clerk. Silwood waited for half an hour, so as to allow plenty of time for all the clerks to have left the office, and then he took a look into the various rooms to see if there was any one still there; but they were all empty. Satisfied on this point, he returned to his own room and shut himself in.