"A loan!" exclaimed the peer, raising his eyebrows as if something quite unexpected had broke upon his ear, though there was the dawning of a half-suppressed smile about his lip that contradicted his tone of surprise--"a loan! Ah, I dare say we can manage that matter, Sir Roger. But be candid with me; tell me the state of your finances: it shall not injure your views, upon my honour!" "Bad enough, my lord, bad enough," replied his companion, candidly, and yet shrewdly; for he began to fancy that candour would be best: "bad enough, I am sorry to say. I have had a sad run against me, and have not been able to get over it." "No heavy debts?" said the peer. "No, upon my honour, no," replied Sir Roger; "I do not owe twenty pounds in the world; but I find a difficulty in getting one." "That was always an extraordinary trait of yours, Millington," said the peer: "you were never in debt, though you spent a good deal, and played high." "Because I always paid away my money as fast as I got it," replied his guest. "As soon as I had a sum, any one might have it that wanted it, whether a tradesman or a friend; and as I had large sums then," he added, with a sigh, "I was never long in debt." This was, indeed, partly true of the times to which he referred, as the peer well knew; and the reason for his having few debts in later years was still more simple, though he mentioned it not--it was, that no one would trust him. Lord Dewry, however, seemed affected by his reference to old times, and replied, "Well, well, Sir Roger, we will not let you be hard pressed any longer. What is the sum you at present want?" Sir Roger Millington hesitated between the fear of asking too much and asking too little; and he would have given the three guineas that graced his pocket willingly to have found out what service was to be demanded of him in return, that he might shape his request accordingly. "It cannot be to fight," he thought; "the fellow used to do all that business for himself, and devilish well, too! but, however, it must be some pitiful job, indeed, if it is not worth a couple of hundred. I'll ask fifty more.--Why, my lord," he said aloud, "the fact is, that two hundred and fifty pounds, I am afraid, will be requisite." "Well, well," said Lord Dewry, who, thinking chiefly of Sir Roger's former style of living, had calculated upon a demand of at least double that amount--"well, well, that can be managed; and, upon my honour, it shall be managed: but now let us speak a little upon other matters." "Now it comes!" thought Sir Roger Millington; but the peer proceeded,--"I have now promised you this sum unconditionally; but if you will explain to me more fully the real and particular state of your finances, perhaps we may strike out something that may prove ultimately still more beneficial to you--I mean permanently beneficial."