"You think you have. I doubt if that is a matter on which your judgment can be trusted. If the case ultimately goes against them, the possibilities--I should say the probabilities--are that they will declare themselves bankrupt. Then where will you be? You will have to pay your own costs, and, instead of getting the amount adjudged, after another interval of dreary waiting, you may receive, as a final quittance, perhaps sixpence, or a shilling, in the pound. And in the meantime, you must remember, you will have to live." "You old croaker!" "Let me make a suggestion." "Your suggestions!" She brought her fist down on the back of an armchair with an emphasis which almost suggested that she would have liked that chair to have been some portion of his body. "Let me lay the whole case before a friend of mine, and, after he has given it careful consideration, it is possible that he may make you a proposition." "What sort of proposition?" "That I cannot tell you--the best he can." "You understand that I must have ten thousand pounds within a week?" "I hear you say so. If my friend can see his way no doubt he will let you have them." "Mind he does see his way!" "As to that----" Mr. Gregory Lamb's sudden appearance in the doorway perhaps allowed to serve as an excuse for his sentence to remain unfinished. "You here!" exclaimed Mr. Lamb, as if he were not too well pleased to see him. "I didn't know." Mr. Luker's greeting, although well meant, was a little peculiar. "My dear Mr. Lamb, how well you are always looking!--and always so beautifully dressed. What a lovely pin you have in your pretty necktie! Now I know a friend who would give you----" "I don't want to know what your friend would give me! Confound it, Luker, I never see you but you tell me what some one you know would give me for something I have on. You might be a marine store-dealer." "There are worse trades, Mr. Lamb--there are worse trades. Now with regard to that exquisite pair of trousers----" "Look here, Luker, if you're going to tell me what some one you know will give me for my trousers, I'll throw something at you." "You mustn't do that, Mr. Lamb, it might be something worth money--everything in the room is so very beautiful. Mrs. Lamb, I wish you good-morning." "Now, no nonsense, Luker. I want that within a week--and you've got to see I have it--if you don't want trouble!" "I understand perfectly, and will bear what you have said well in mind. You shall hear from me again very shortly." "I will see I do!" "I have had clients, Mr. Lamb, who would have conveyed that pin without paying for it--it presents such temptations to an honest man. I do hope it's properly secured. Good-morning!" When Mr. Luker had retired Mr. Lamb turned to his wife, with knitted brows. "Isabel, it's beyond my comprehension why you have anything to do with that animal. He's got scoundrel written large all over him." "I shouldn't have thought that would have prejudiced him in your eyes."