Deringham in his tweed travelling attire, which, worn with apparent carelessness, seemed to hang with every fold just where it should be, was wholly at his ease, and there was a trace of half-expressed toleration in his thin, finely-cut face, while Hallam appeared to become coarse and embarrassed by comparison.

He probably did not feel so, for diffidence of any kind is not common in the West, but he may have realized that in any delicate fencing the advantage would lie with Deringham.

Both, producing nothing and living upon the toil of their fellows, played the same game, but, while the stakes and counters are very similar, one played it in Vancouver and the other in London, where a more subtle finesse is demanded from the players.
Hallam, however, smiled.

"I don't know that you will be pleased when I tell you, but this should explain things," he said.

"Of course, since your company took hold out here I have heard of you." Deringham took the Colonial Journal handed him, glanced down a paragraph, and passed it to his daughter.