"Miss Castlemaine would not give you a second thought." "Then you accept my offer? Look here, if I am rejected I give a hundred pounds to--what shall we say--Guy's Hospital? While if I am accepted you give the same sum. Is it a bargain?" "I tell you she would not look at you. If she is not already acquainted with what those who know you think about you, she would soon become acquainted, and then--well, you would be driven from the house." "Exactly; then you agree?" "Oh yes, if you like." "Good; as for Winfield, his only part in the business is naming the lady. Gentlemen, I am really much obliged to you. I have not felt so interested in life for a long time. You are really benefactors. But come, now, we must go into this affair in a business-like way, and, 'pon my word, I'll have another glass in order to drink success to the enterprise." He rang the bell and the waiter appeared. "Four whiskies, waiter," he said. "I don't like this," said Sprague. "What, the whisky? I'll complain to the management." "No, the whole business. It isn't right." "Not right? Why, it gives me a new interest in life, man. Already my moral sentiments are being elevated. I see myself going to that Nonconformist church with a hymn-book and Bible under my arm. I even see myself a deacon, or an elder, or something of that sort. Not right, when it is having such a regenerating influence?" "Stick to your guns, you chaps," remarked Winfield quietly, who had been the silent member of the party. "But I must have fair play," said Leicester. "I want a fair field and no favour. All I demand is that you chaps shall hold your tongues. This conversation must not go beyond these walls. That's fair, isn't it?" "That's nothing but just," said Winfield. "But how are you to get an introduction?" said Sprague. "Old John Castlemaine is very particular as to whom he has at his house, and although I have consented to this business, I'll take no part in it." "Nor I," said Purvis; "and now I come to think about it, I withdraw from it altogether." "Except to pay your hundred pounds if I succeed," said Leicester. "You can't back out from that," remarked Winfield. "Still, I'll be a party to nothing," he said weakly. "Of course I know it'll end in nothing. Miss Castlemaine is one of the cleverest women I know, and she'll see through everything at a glance." "Then I'm to have fair play?" "Oh yes, I shall not interfere with you. There will be no need." "That is to say, not a whisper of this conversation goes outside this room." "Of course that is but fair," urged Winfield again. "Very well," said Purvis, "I shall say nothing; but mind you, I do not believe in the business. It's wrong, it's not--well, it's not in good form. But there, it doesn't matter. It'll end in nothing." "Exactly," said Leicester; but there was a strange light in his eyes. "And you, Sprague, you'll act straight, too?"