"Ah, you people trust us a great deal, and we in return trust you--a very long time often before we can get paid. Not you, my dear Gartram, you always were a hard cash man. But you people trust us a great deal, and our power is great. "And ought not to be abused," he said hastily. "No, of course not. No one ought to abuse those who trust. Capital coffee this," he added, as he partook of more. "Grand thing to keep a man awake. "Humph! Tired. Ours is weary work," and he yawned. "I believe I should have been a clever fellow," mused the doctor, "if I had not been so confoundedly lazy. There's something very interesting in these cases. In yours, for instance, my fine old fellow, it sets one thinking whether I could have treated you differently, and whether I could do anything to prevent the recurrence of these fits." He smoked on in silence, and then shook his head. "No," he said, half aloud; "if there is a fire burning, and that is kept burning, all that we can do is to keep on smothering it for a time. It is sure to keep on eating its way out. He has a fire in his brain which he insists upon keeping burning, so until he quenches it himself, all I can do is to stop the flames by smothering it over by my medical sods. You must cure yourself, Norman Gartram; I cannot cure you. No, and you cannot cure yourself, for you will go on struggling to make more money that you have no use for, till you die. Poor devil!" He said the last two words aloud, in a voice full of pitying contempt. Then, after another sip of his coffee, he looked round for a book, drew the lamp close to his right shoulder, and picked up one or two volumes, but only to throw them down again; and he was reaching over for another when his eye fell upon the cash belt with its bulging contents. "Humph," he ejaculated, as he turned it over and over, and noted that it had been in service a long time. "Stuffed very full. Notes, I suppose. Old boy hates banking. Wonder how much there is in? Very dishonourable," he muttered; "extremely so, but he has placed himself in my hands." He drew out a pocket-book. "Wants a new elastic band, my dear Gartram. Out of order. I must prescribe a new band. Let me see; what have we here? Notes--fivers-- tens--two fifties. Droll thing that these flimsy looking scraps of paper should represent so much money. More here too--tens, all of them." He drew forth from the pockets of the book dirty doubled-up packets of Bank of England notes, and carelessly examined them, refolding them, and returning them to their places. "What a capital fee I might pay myself," he said, with an unpleasant little laugh; "and I don't suppose, old fellow, that you would miss it. Certainly, my dear Gartram, you would be none the worse. Extremely one-sided sometimes," he said, "to have had the education of a gentleman and run short. Yes, very." He returned the last notes to the pocket, and raised a little flap in the inner part.