"It would be only a kind thing to do, Jack, and a wholesome change for
yourself into the bargain. Anything would be better for you than being
shut up in these chambers another day."
"Well, Gilbert, I'll go with you," said Mr. Saltram presently with a kind
of recklessness. "It is a small thing to do for friendship. Yes, I'll see
you off, dear boy. Egad, I wish I could go to Australia with you. I
would, if it were not for my engagements with the children and sundry
other creditors. I think a new country might do me good. But there's no
use in talking about that. I'm bound hand and foot to the old one."
"That reminds me of something I had to say to you, John. There must have
been some reason for your leaving Lidford in that sudden way the other
day, and your note explained nothing. I thought you and I had no secrets
from each other, It's scarcely fair to treat me like that."
"The business was hardly worth explaining," answered the other moodily.
"A bill that I had forgotten for the time fell due just then, and I
hurried off to set things straight."
"Let me help you somehow or other, Jack."
"No, Gilbert; I will never suffer you to become entangled in the
labyrinth of my affairs. You don't know what a hopeless wilderness you
would enter if you were desperate enough to attempt my rescue.
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