'So you bought the mica-mine, did you! Pretending to be friendly with me, and knowing all the time that you were doing your best to cheat----' 'Come, come!' interrupted the old gentleman; 'William, none of this. If anyone is to talk roughly to Edith, it will be me, not you. Come, sir, leave the room, as she has asked you to do. Now, my daughter,' he continued, in a much milder tone of voice, after young Longworth had left the office, 'have you any ready money? It is no use saying the mine is worth a hundred thousand pounds, or a million, just now, if you haven't the ready money. Edith, my child,' he cried, 'sit down with me a moment, and I will explain the whole situation to you. It seems to me that ever since I stopped consulting you things have gone wrong. Perhaps, even if you have the money, it is better not to risk it just now; but one pound will do what two pounds will not do a year hence, or perhaps six months from now, when this panic is over.' Edith sat down beside her father and heard from him exactly how things stood. Then she said: 'All you really need is about fifteen thousand pounds?' 'Yes, that would do; I'm sure that would carry me over. Can you get it for me, my child?' 'Yes, and more. I will try to get you the whole amount. Wait for me here twenty minutes or half an hour.' George Wentworth was very much surprised when he saw Edith Longworth enter his office. It had been many months since she was there before, and he cordially held out his hand to the girl. 'Mr. Wentworth,' she began at once, 'have you any of the money the mica mine has brought you?' 'Yes. I invested the first year's proceeds, but, since I got the last amount, things have been so shaky in the City that it is still at the bank.' 'Will you lend me--_can_ you lend me five thousand pounds of it?' 'Of, course I can, and will; and very glad I am to get the chance of doing so.' 'Then, please write me out a cheque for it at once, and whatever papers you want as security, make them out, and I will see that you are secured.' 'Look here, Miss Longworth,' said the young man, placing his hands on his hips and gazing at her, 'do you mean to insult me? Do you not know that the reason I am able to write out a cheque for five thousand pounds, that will be honoured, is entirely because you trusted your money to me and Kenyon without security? Do you think I want security? Take back the word, Miss Longworth.' 'I will--I will,' she said; 'but I am in a great hurry. Please write me out the cheque, for I must have it before the bank closes.' The cheque was promptly written out and handed to her. 'I am afraid,' she said, 'I am not very polite to-day, and rather abrupt; but I will make up for it some other time.' And so, bidding the young man good-bye, she drove to the bank, deposited the cheque, drew her own for thirty thousand pounds, and carried it to her father.