But young Garland had his face upon his hand, and once more he was the miserable man who had begun brokenly to unfold the history of his shame. The unconscious animation produced by the mere unloading of his heart, the natural boyish slang with which his tale had been freely garnished, had faded from his face, had died upon his lips. Once more he was a soul in torments of despair and degradation; and yet once more did the absence of the abject in man and manner redeem him from the depths of either. In these moments of reaction he was pitiful, but not contemptible, much less unlovable. Indeed, I could see the qualities that had won the heart of Raffles as I had never seen them before. There is a native nobility not to be destroyed by a single descent into the ignoble, an essential honesty too bright and brilliant to be dimmed by incidental dishonour; and both remained to the younger man, in the eyes of the other two, who were even then determining to preserve in him all that they themselves had lost. The thought came naturally enough to me. And yet I may well have derived it from a face that for once was easy to read, a clear-cut face that had never looked so sharp in profile, or, to my knowledge, half so gentle in expression. "And what about these Jews?" asked Raffles at length. "There's really only one." "Are we to guess his name?" "No, I don't mind telling you. It's Dan Levy." "Of course it is!" cried Raffles with a nod for me. "Our Mr. Shylock in all his glory!" Teddy snatched his face from his hands. "You don't know him, do you?" "I might almost say I know him at home," said Raffles. "But as a matter of fact I met him abroad." Teddy was on his feet. "But do you know him well enough--" "Certainly. I'll see him in the morning. But I ought to have the receipts for the various instalments you have paid, and perhaps that letter saying it was your last chance." "Here they all are," said Garland, producing a bulky envelope. "But of course I'll come with you--" "Of course you'll do nothing of the kind, Teddy! I won't have your eye put out for the match by that old ruffian, and I'm not going to let you sit up all night either. Where are you staying, my man?" "Nowhere yet. I left my kit at the club. I was going out home if I'd caught you early enough." "Stout fellow! You stay here." "My dear old man, I couldn't think of it," said Teddy gratefully. "My dear young man, I don't care whether you think of it or not. Here you stay, and moreover you turn in at once. I can fix you up with all you want, and Barraclough shall bring your kit round before you're awake." "But you haven't got a bed, Raffles?" "You shall have mine. I hardly ever go to bed--do I, Bunny?" "I've seldom seen you there," said I. "But you were travelling all last night?" "And straight through till this evening, and I sleep all the time in a train," said Raffles. "I hardly opened an eye all day; if I turned in to-night I shouldn't get a wink."