The thing interested me so little that I never quite mastered the details of it. I wished the man no good, but so long as he kept out of my way I was not going to hate him actively. Finally the affairs of Holstein-Launewitz ceased to occupy the papers--the thing was arranged and the Russian and Prussian princes unpacked their portmanteaux, and, I suppose, consigned their manifestos to the flames, or adapted them to the needs of other principalities. De Mersch's affairs ceded their space in the public prints to the topic of the dearness of money. Somebody, somewhere, was said to be up to something. I used to try to read the articles, to master the details, because I disliked finding a whole field of thought of which I knew absolutely nothing. I used to read about the great discount houses and other things that conveyed absolutely nothing to my mind. I only gathered that the said great houses were having a very bad time, and that everybody else was having a very much worse. One day, indeed, the matter was brought home to me by the receipt from Polehampton of bills instead of my usual cheques. I had a good deal of trouble in cashing the things; indeed, people seemed to look askance at them. I consulted my aunt on the subject, at breakfast. It was the sort of thing that interested the woman of business in her, and we were always short of topics of conversation. We breakfasted in rather a small room, as rooms went there; my aunt sitting at the head of the table, with an early morning air of being _en famille_ that she wore at no other time of day. It was not a matter of garments, for she was not the woman to wear a _peignoir_; but lay, I supposed, in her manner, which did not begin to assume frigidity until several watches of the day had passed. I handed her Polehampton's bills and explained that I was at a loss to turn them to account; that I even had only the very haziest of ideas as to their meaning. Holding the forlorn papers in her hand, she began to lecture me on the duty of acquiring the rudiments of what she called "business habits." "Of course you do not require to master details to any considerable extent," she said, "but I always have held that it is one of the duties of a...." She interrupted herself as my sister came into the room; looked at her, and then held out the papers in her hand. The things quivered a little; the hand must have quivered too. "You are going to Halderschrodt's?" she said, interrogatively. "You could get him to negotiate these for Etchingham?" Miss Granger looked at the papers negligently. "I am going this afternoon," she answered. "Etchingham can come...." She suddenly turned to me: "So your friend is getting shaky," she said. "It means that?" I asked. "But I've heard that he has done the same sort of thing before." "He must have been shaky before," she said, "but I daresay Halderschrodt...."