"Look here, Luker, I'm in an ugly temper. You ought to know the signs of it as well as any man, so I advise you to take care. I told you you were to bring me ten thousand pounds. When I said it I meant it; why haven't you brought it?" "My dear Isabel----" "Haven't I told you not to call me that?" "Very well; it's a matter of utter indifference to me what I call you--utter! I was merely about to remark that I have laid your proposition before my friend, and, as I anticipated, he has decided that he doesn't care to lend money except on adequate security." "Adequate security! Don't you call a quarter of a million adequate security?" "Certainly, if you had it, but you haven't. And you have nothing tangible to show that you ever will have, or any part of it." "There are those Hardwood Company shares--ten thousand of them." "You tell me that you are in an ugly temper, and I can perceive for myself that you are not so calm as I should wish, otherwise I should ask for permission to be quite frank with you." "You had better be frank! Never you mind about my temper; it won't be improved by your shuffling. Out with what you've got to say!" "Remember, it will only be said at your express invitation." "Do you hear? Out with it!" "Then briefly and plainly it's this: If you were anybody else it's possible that money--some money--might be got on your expectation of the Hardwood Company's shares, but, as things are, it's out of the question." "Why? What's the matter with my being me?" "A good deal, as you're as well aware as I am. In a matter of this sort it's character which tells, and, unfortunately--I say it with deep sorrow!--your character's against you." "What's my character got to do with a thing of this kind?" "Everything. Suppose my friend were to advance you money upon your expectation of these shares, from your point of view you'd have him between your finger and thumb, and you'd keep him there." "How do you make that out?" "The process of extracting compensation from Messrs. McTavish & Brown would be, at best, both a lengthy and a tiresome one, one, moreover, in which not a step could be taken without your active assistance. You'd find that out, and you'd say, 'If you won't let me have so much more I won't move a finger, then you'll lose all that you've advanced already'. And you'd mould your conduct on those lines to the bitter end--my friend might find it a very bitter end. That would not suit him at all." "You----! I've half a mind to kill you!" "Keep it at half a mind; many of my friends and clients have found it wiser to stop right there." "Then do you mean to tell me that I can't get money out of any one--anyhow?" "Not at all; money can always be obtained upon security. You have personal property--the furniture of this house, jewels, and so on." "What I might get out of that sort of thing would be gone before I got it." "Then you might get money out of Messrs. McTavish & Brown."