The soft air of Surrey blew upon them as they gazed; it was laden with those peculiar subtleties which only Londoners can understand. It came from the glorious heaths of Putney; from Kingston where the woods and the river meet; it bore the spirit of Battersea, of Clapham, of the Kennington Oval ... there lingered in it suggestions of the “Elephant and Castle,” of Camberwell, of the majestic Thames itself: it blew upon and soothed the father and the son, so that their conclusions ran together, and the old man was ready for the venture which the younger man defended. When they had stood still a moment, to receive this influence before turning back homewards, Mr Burden, even as they turned, looked at Cosmo and said more softly: “It will be your money, Cosmo. Remember that. I am speaking to you about your own money.” Cosmo answered in the voice of one who is touched: a voice, which was perhaps the noblest thing of the many noble things he had acquired in his academic training: “People talk like that, father ... but it is yours, and will be yours for very many years; it is you who may treble it or lose it.” In the emotion of the moment, they walked from Nelson Street to the corner of Kipling Gardens before Cosmo spoke again, then he said: “If it were mine to-day, I should do it all the more. You know more about it, father, but you’ve asked me, and I have told you what I think.” Cosmo was right. He is, indeed, no longer a shareholder in the company, nor was he even a shareholder when the Government bought at 5⅜xd; but he held for a full seven months after his father’s death, he sold at 17¼, and a good two-thirds of the fortune he now enjoys is due to his sound judgment during that evening walk in Upper Norwood. * * * * * I have written “when the Government bought at 5⅜.” The thought has perhaps no right to appear in this account, but I cannot forbear to place on record my regret that Mr Burden did not live to see that great silent scene in the House of Commons when the Government announced their intention of buying out the Company. It would have set his foolish doubts at rest, and would perhaps have preserved a life of such value to the Empire, to the City, and to the residential portion of South London. I knew him perhaps better than other men knew him (if Mr O’Rourke will forgive the phrase); and I am most confident that the King’s Own Ministers purchasing, in their public capacity, the rights of the Company for the nation, at the price of 5⅜xd, would have satisfied every murmur and every suspicion in the mind of the man who some months before, was for casting all away at 2-5/16. Alas! before even the first negotiations had been opened at Lady Manningham’s garden party, my dear old friend was dead. * * * * *