"John will take failure and all that devilish hard." He took up the paper again and looked at it. He knew the business was a very good one; after such a warning as this a man would surely go steady; and Grantley Imason had lent money. He built a good deal on that. And--yes--in the end he was ready to run a risk, being a good-natured man and fond of John, and feeling that it would be a very becoming thing in him to do a service to John. "Look here, I shall attend to your official message. I shan't take any notice of these private communications," he said lightly, but kindly, almost affectionately. "And you mustn't feel that sort of way about it. Why, I've got a right to help you, anyhow; and I can't see why I mustn't help John." He went to the table and wrote. He came back to her, holding a cheque in his hand. "Here it is," he said. "John will send me a letter embodying the business side. I've post-dated the cheque four days, because I must see my bankers about it. Oh, it's not inconvenient; only needs a few days' notice--and it'll be in time for what John wants. Here, take it, Christine." He pressed the cheque into her hands, and with a playful show of force shut her fingers upon it. "I know this has been a--a----" He looked round the room, seeming to seek an apt form of expression. "This has been an uncomfortable job for you, but you really mustn't look at it like that, you know." "If you give it me, I must take it. I daren't accept the responsibility of refusing it." He was quite eager to comfort her. "You're doing quite right. You were perfectly square with me; now you're being perfectly square with John." Perfectly square with John! Christine's lips curved in a smile of scorn. But--well, sometimes one loses the right or the power to be perfectly square. "And I'm downright glad to help--downright glad you came to me." "I only came because I couldn't help it." "Then I'm downright glad you couldn't help it." She had loved this unalterable good-temper of his, and admired the tactful way he had of humouring women. If they wouldn't have it in one way, he had always been quite ready to offer it to them in the other, so long as they took it in the end; and this they generally did. She rose to her feet, holding the cheque in her hand. "Your purse, perhaps?" he suggested, laughing. "You see, it might puzzle your young friend. And give old John my remembrances--and good luck to him. Are you going now?" "Yes, Frank, I'm going now." "Good-bye, Christine. I often think of you, you know. I often remember---- Ah, I see I mustn't often remember! Well, you're right, I suppose. But I'm always your friend. Don't be in any trouble without letting me know." "I shall never come to you again." He grew a little impatient at that, but still he was quite good-natured about it.