“Our conversation this afternoon,” Arthur answered, boldly. “I could not rest; it is not fair, Mr. Black; you have not treated me as I should have treated you. Do you remember what you said to me that day when this matter was first mooted between us?” “Pray sit down,” said Mr. Black, magnificently, waving his visitor to a seat, “and explain your meaning to me quietly, if you can. Do I remember what? we said so many things that day it would be impossible for me to recollect all, or indeed any, of them, unless recalled to my memory.” “Do you remember what you said about going half profits with me?” Arthur asked. “I can’t say that I do. Were there any profits then to share?” “Prospective profits,” the other answered. “You said you expected twenty or thirty thousand pounds out of the ‘Protector,’ and that whatever you got, you would go shares with me.” “Did I?” asked Mr. Black, innocently. “I wish, Dudley, you had chosen any other time in the day than this for coming to pester about by-gones,” he added, “for I have no end of letters to write; but, however, as you are here, say all you have got to say.” “I have nothing to say excepting what I have already said,” answered Arthur, “namely, that you promised to go shares with me in the Bread Company.” “Now, that is exactly the objection I have to doing business with a gentleman,” remarked Mr. Black; “it is impossible to make him understand, excepting literally, a sentence which would be plain as a pikestaff to a boy in the London streets. Tell me the construction you took out of that speech, which, I confess, I never remember to have uttered.” “You said you would have twenty or thirty thousand out of this bakery affair, and were willing to give me half.” “Precisely! not willing to give you half of my earnings, but willing to give you a chance of winning fifteen thousand, which you would have done but for that meddling idiot, Stewart. He has dished me, too, you know. Deuce a thing I have had out of the Company except trouble, my shares, and position. It certainly has given me position. I meant we should have made—you and I together—thousands and thousands out of it, instead of which, when I had served my gentleman’s turn, he bows me off with, ‘The Company won’t bear this, and the Company can’t afford that. Whatever houses and offices we buy, must be bought on the mart. Our grain shall not be supplied through any friend of yours. I shall put in my own people to see you do not make sixpence out of that which owes its very existence to you.’ Damn him,” added Mr. Black, heartily; “the next time I go praying and begging for a great man’s name, I’ll get what I have got this time—insolence instead of thanks—the door instead of money.” There was no sham about Mr. Black’s manner while he delivered himself of this sentence.