George knew the way to Mr. Verrall's room, and was allowed to enter. Mr. Verrall, alone then, turned round with a cordial grasp. "Holloa!" said he. "We somehow missed this morning. How are you?" "I say, Verrall, how came you to play me such a trick as to go off in that clandestine manner yesterday?" remonstrated George. "You know the uncertainty I was in: that if I did not get what I hoped for, I should be on my beam ends?" "My dear fellow, I supposed you had got it. Hearing nothing of you all day, I concluded it had come by the morning's post." "It had not come then," returned George, crustily. In spite of his blind trust in the unbleached good faith of Mr. Verrall, there were moments when a thought would cross him as to whether that gentleman had been playing a double game. This was one of them. "I had a hasty summons, and was obliged to come away without delay," explained Mr. Verrall. "I sent you a message." "Which I never received," retorted George. "But the message is not the question. See here! A pretty letter, this, for a man to read. It came by the afternoon post." Mr. Verrall took the letter, and digested the contents deliberately; in all probability he had known their substance before. "What do you think of it?" demanded George. "It's unfortunate," said Mr. Verrall. "It's ruin," returned George. "Unless averted. But it must be averted." "How?" "There is one way, you know," said Mr. Verrall, after a pause. "I have pointed it out to you already." "And I wish your tongue had been blistered, Verrall, before you ever had pointed it out to me!" foamed George. "There!" Mr. Verrall raised his impassive eyebrows. "You must be aware----" "Man!" interrupted George, his voice hoarse with emotion, as he grasped Mr. Verrall's shoulder: "do you know that the temptation, since you suggested it, is ever standing out before me--an _ignis fatuus_, beckoning me on to it! Though I know that it would prove nothing but a curse to engulf me." "Here, George, take this," said Mr. Verrall, pouring out a large tumbler of sparkling wine, and forcing it upon him. "The worst of you is, that you get so excited over things! and then you are sure to look at them in a wrong light. Just hear me for a moment. The pressure is all at this present moment, is it not? If you can lift it, you will recover yourself fast enough. Has it ever struck you," Mr. Verrall added, somewhat abruptly, "that your brother is fading?" Remembering the scene with his brother the previous night, George looked very conscious. He simply nodded an answer. "With Ashlydyat yours, you would recover yourself almost immediately. There would positively be no risk." "_No risk!_" repeated George, with emphasis.