Among these visions passing before the eyes of his mind, there naturally occurred the form of Peter Mackcller, who had wedded a rich American lady. Their marriage had turned out supremely happy, despite the fact that Peter developed into a rather cross-grained, grumpy sort of person; at least, so far as his relations with Stranleigh were concerned. The American girl married Mackeller when he was a mining engineer, not very well off, but Peter had become an important man since that day; a person to be reckoned with in the financial circles of London. Sometimes Stranleigh had favoured him, and sometimes luck had favoured him, so that now he was undoubtedly rich.
The acquisition of money had not sweetened his temper: he was imperious, and inclined to be unreasonable, yet as Stranleigh thought about him, he knew that here was the engineer to visit Austria if he could be induced to go. Whatever might be held against Mackeller, his rigid honesty was beyond question. Should there be gold in that land, Peter would discover it, and if there was not, no bribe could prevent him from telling the truth. There was, however, the difficulty that Peter, now wealthy, would resent being asked to take once more to mining engineering, and might thus refuse with scorn.
