It was not long before they were seated together in the wainscoted
parlor over their tea and toast, which was as much as Raffles cared to
take at that early hour. The difference between his morning and
evening self was not so great as his companion had imagined that it
might be; the delight in tormenting was perhaps even the stronger
because his spirits were rather less highly pitched. Certainly his
manners seemed more disagreeable by the morning light.
"As I have little time to spare, Mr. Raffles," said the banker, who
could hardly do more than sip his tea and break his toast without
eating it, "I shall be obliged if you will mention at once the ground
on which you wished to meet with me. I presume that you have a home
elsewhere and will be glad to return to it."
"Why, if a man has got any heart, doesn't he want to see an old friend,
Nick?--I must call you Nick--we always did call you young Nick when we
knew you meant to marry the old widow. Some said you had a handsome
family likeness to old Nick, but that was your mother's fault, calling
you Nicholas. Aren't you glad to see me again? I expected an invite
to stay with you at some pretty place. My own establishment is broken
up now my wife's dead. I've no particular attachment to any spot; I
would as soon settle hereabout as anywhere."
"May I ask why you returned from America? I considered that the strong
wish you expressed to go there, when an adequate sum was furnished, was
tantamount to an engagement that you would remain there for life."
"Never knew that a wish to go to a place was the same thing as a wish
to stay. But I did stay a matter of ten years; it didn't suit me to
stay any longer. And I'm not going again, Nick." Here Mr. Raffles
winked slowly as he looked at Mr. Bulstrode.
"Do you wish to be settled in any business? What is your calling now?"
"Thank you, my calling is to enjoy myself as much as I can. I don't
care about working any more. If I did anything it would be a little
travelling in the tobacco line--or something of that sort, which takes
a man into agreeable company. But not without an independence to fall
back upon. That's what I want: I'm not so strong as I was, Nick,
though I've got more color than you. I want an independence."
"That could be supplied to you, if you would engage to keep at a
distance," said Mr. Bulstrode, perhaps with a little too much eagerness
in his undertone.