Lady Tressady tried again to preserve her dignity. She had been investing, she said--trying to increase her income on the Stock Exchange. She had done it quite as much for George's sake as her own, that she might improve her position a little, and be less of a burden upon him. Everybody did it! Several of her best women-friends were as clever at it as any man, and often doubled their allowances for the year. She, of course, had done it under the _best_ advice. George knew that she had friends in the City who would do anything--positively _anything_--for her. But somehow-- Then her tone dropped. Her foot in its French shoe began to fidget on the stool before her. Somehow, she had got into the hands of a reptile--there! No other word described the creature in the least--a sort of financial agent, who had treated her unspeakably, disgracefully. She had trusted him implicitly, and the result was that she now owed the reptile who, on the strength of her name, her son, and her aristocratic connections, had advanced her money for these adventures, a sum-- "Well, the truth is I am afraid to say what it is," said Lady Tressady, allowing herself for once a cry of nature, and again raising a shaky hand to her eyes. "How much?" said George, standing over her, cigarette in hand. "Well--four thousand pounds!" said Lady Tressady, her eyes blinking involuntarily as she looked up at him. "_Four thousand pounds!_" exclaimed George. "Preposterous!" And, raising his hand, he flung his cigarette violently into the fire and resumed his walk, hands thrust into his pockets. Lady Tressady looked tearfully at his long, slim figure as he walked away, conscious, however, even at this agitated moment, of the quick thought that he had inherited some of her elegance. "George!" "Yes--wait a moment--mother"--he faced round upon her decidedly. "Let me tell you at once, that at the present moment it is quite impossible for me to find that sum of money." Lady Tressady flushed passionately like a thwarted child. "Very well, then," she said--"very well. Then it will be bankruptcy--and I hope you and Letty will like the scandal!" "So he threatens bankruptcy?" "Do you think I should have come down here except for something like that?" she cried. "Look at his letters!" And she took a tumbled roll out of the bag on her arm and gave it to him. George threw himself into a chair, and tried to get some idea of the correspondence; while Lady Tressady kept up a stream of plaintive chatter he could only endeavour not to hear.