"Excuse me, sir," said the spokesman, "we distinguish between begging and borrowing. To give--to bestow alms--upon unworthy persons"--he looked severely at the bankrupt, who paid no heed--"or upon persons who are best left in their own humble station in life"--he waved an insulting hand towards the pew-opener--"is one thing; to advance capital which will be regarded as a loan, to be repaid with interest, is quite another thing. To solicit alms, as has been done, I fear, by some in this room, is one thing; to offer an investment, on the solid security of a sterling and established place of business, is quite another thing." "Very true," said John Haveril. "Very true." "Where the security is a concern--a concern, sir, improving every day, with four and twenty young ladies as shop-assistants----" "Fed on scrag of mutton and margarine!" observed the pew-opener, aloud. "--in a promising suburb and in a crowded highway, with the electric light, a carriage often at the door, and the proprietor a churchwarden--a very different thing," he concluded, running down and forgetting the construction of his sentence. The others said nothing; but the Board school teacher examined the pictures on the wall, and was absorbed for the moment in art criticism. "You all want money," John Haveril repeated; "that is the reason why I invited you here to-day." "Why shouldn't we?" asked the broken one. "You are the only one of the family who has got any money. As for this fellow"--he indicated the draper--"hollow, hollow! There's no stability in him, I know. Where I am there he ought to be--down among the dead men." "Where a few pounds would be the making of us, and them not so much as missed," said the pew-opener, "why not?" "I don't know," continued the capitalist, "that you've got any claim on me. You cut your cousin Alice off--out of the family--for her first marriage." "What else," asked the spokesman, "could we do? She married an actor, sir--a common actor. No doubt she has long since repented her early choice. How different from her second venture--her second prize! Ah! a prize indeed." "Some of us were not born then," said the Board school teacher. "I'd as soon marry an actor as a draper--sooner, too." She was a sharp-faced girl, quick and ready--perhaps too quick--with woman's most formidable weapon. "Actors don't sweat shop-girls." "Alice tells me," John Haveril went on slowly, "that none of you ever made any kind of inquiry after her, or answered her letters--except one--Will--also an actor, who is now deceased." "How could we, when some of us hadn't even got into the cradle?" asked the teacher. "I didn't quarrel with Alice," said the bankrupt. "I never saw her nor heard of her. And I didn't quarrel with Cousin Will. Why," he added conclusively, "I borrowed money of him." "If she had been in want," John Haveril added, "would you have helped her because she was your cousin?"