He agreed willingly enough; and a day or two later, his name appeared in all the leading London papers in which the new Company was advertised. From that day the Anglo-Indian may be said to have entered on a new career. In six months he had become director in as many Companies. He went daily to the City, where he remained till the tide of busy men turned westward, and then went home with the comfortable conviction that he had made money and gained valuable information on financial matters. His clubs were now rarely honoured with his presence; and when he did visit any old Indian friend, his conversation was almost exclusively on the subject of this or that Company, of how much Mr A. had made, or Mr B. had lost, by such and such speculations, and of the good things in store for those who knew how to work the financial oracles. In short, he became, as too many retired Anglo-Indian Civil and Military servants do when they come home, helplessly insane on a subject of which he knew little or nothing, of which he had no experience, and in which he was the victim of designing knaves, who made a tool of him. Matters went on pleasantly enough for a time; but at last a very decided change for the worse came. One by one the Companies of which he was a director collapsed; and when they were wound up, our friend found, to his dismay, that he had to book up the full value of the shares for which he had never paid. This pretty nearly cleared away the ready-money he had at his banker’s; but there was still worse behind.