"They were both convinced. It was easy to see that now, and I promised to do what I could for them. "I got a schedule of the young man's debts and found that he owed, among other debts, six thousand dollars to sundry shops and department stores in New York--the purchases of his wife in the eight months of their wedded life. I asked her how it could have happened. "'He opened accounts for me and said I could buy what I wanted, and you know it is so easy to say "Charge it,'" was her answer. 'Every one has accounts these days, and they tempt you to buy more than you need.' "'It is true. Credit is the latest ally of the devil. It is the great tempter. It is responsible for half the extravagance of modern life. The two words 'charge it' have done more harm than any others in the language. They have led to a vast amount of unnecessary buying. They have developed a talent for extravagance in our people. They have created a large and growing sisterhood and brotherhood of dead-beats. They have led to bankruptcy and slow pay and bad debts. They have raised the cost of everything we require because the tradesman compels us to pay his uncollected accounts. They are added to your bills and mine, and the merchant prince suffers no impairment of his fortune. "Bessie's bank-account was also overdrawn. That reminds me of a new sinner--the bank-check. It is so easy to draw a check--and, then, somehow, it's only a piece of paper. You let it go without a pang while you would be very thoughtful if you were counting out the money and parting with it. "The check is another way of saying 'Charge it.' "That evening I went to see Harry." XII IN WHICH HARRY IS FORCED TO ABANDON SWAMP FICTION AND LIKE FOLLIES AND TO STUDY THE GEOGRAPHY AND NATIVES OF A LAND UNKNOWN TO OUR HEIRISTOCRACY "I found Harry smoking with Cub Sayles in his den above stairs in the big country-house of Henry Delance. As I entered Harry said to his young friend: "'I have to talk over some things with Mr. Potter--would you mind going down to the library?' "Cub withdrew, and Harry sat down with me. "'I suppose you've seen him?' he asked, nervously. "'Whom?' "'Why, you know a mysterious stranger has been looking for me and--by Jove!--I'm scared stiff. He's an Englishman.' "'What of that?' "'Let me show you,' said Harry. "He took a key from his pocket, unlocked a door, and fetched the familiar skull of the Bishop of St. Clare and put it on the table before me. "'It's that damn Bishop's head,' he whispered. 'It has come back--would you believe it?--picked up by a fisherman on the Irish coast and returned to the express office in London. All the old directions were quite legible on the box. "To Harry Delance, SS. _Lusitania_. If not found, forward to Pointview, Conn., U.S.A., charges collect!" So it came on. I received a notice and went down and got it out of bond and paid three pounds, and here it is.' "'It looks as if the Bishop was out for revenge,' I said, with a laugh.