'I was not aware
of it.'
'Understand me, Mr. Sampson. I don't imagine that you have
retired. It is not so bad as that. But Mr. Meltham - '
'O, to be sure!' said I. 'Yes! Mr. Meltham, the young actuary of
the "Inestimable."'
'Just so,' he returned in a consoling way.
'He is a great loss. He was at once the most profound, the most
original, and the most energetic man I have ever known connected
with Life Assurance.'
I spoke strongly; for I had a high esteem and admiration for
Meltham; and my gentleman had indefinitely conveyed to me some
suspicion that he wanted to sneer at him. He recalled me to my
guard by presenting that trim pathway up his head, with its
internal 'Not on the grass, if you please - the gravel.'
'You knew him, Mr. Slinkton.'
'Only by reputation. To have known him as an acquaintance or as a
friend, is an honour I should have sought if he had remained in
society, though I might never have had the good fortune to attain
it, being a man of far inferior mark. He was scarcely above
thirty, I suppose?'
'About thirty.'
'Ah!' he sighed in his former consoling way. 'What creatures we
are! To break up, Mr. Sampson, and become incapable of business at
that time of life! - Any reason assigned for the melancholy fact?'
('Humph!' thought I, as I looked at him. 'But I WON'T go up the
track, and I WILL go on the grass.')
'What reason have you heard assigned, Mr. Slinkton?' I asked,
point-blank.
'Most likely a false one.
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