Why, what DID you talk about?"
Peters, with a miserable conviction that he had thrown away a valuable
opportunity in mere idle gossip, nevertheless endeavored to look
mysterious as he replied, "Oh, business gin'rally." Then in the faint
hope of yet retrieving his blunder he inquired, "How long will he be
here?"
"Don't know. I reckon he and Harcourt's got something on hand. He just
asked if he was likely to be at home or at his office. I told him I
reckoned at the house, for some of the family--I didn't get to see who
they were--drove up in a carriage from the 3.40 train while you were
sitting there."
Meanwhile the subject of this discussion, quite unconscious of the
sensation he had created, or perhaps like most heroes philosophically
careless of it, was sauntering indifferently towards Harcourt's house.
But he had no business with his former host, his only object was to pass
an idle hour before his train left. He was, of course, not unaware that
he himself was largely responsible for Harcourt's success; that it was
HIS hint which had induced the petty trader of Sidon to venture his all
in Tasajara; HIS knowledge of the topography and geology of the
plain that had stimulated Harcourt's agricultural speculations; HIS
hydrographic survey of the creek that had made Harcourt's plan of
widening the channel to commerce practicable and profitable. This he
could not help but know.
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