"Before speaking of these, Frank," replied Silwood, "let me beg of you not to fret too much. What is the use of dwelling on what is past and cannot now be mended?" "How can I help it?" "You must try. For one thing, you must come to the office. It is surely better to attend to your work at the office----" "To attend to my work!" broke in Eversleigh. "How can I, when all my thoughts are centred on one thing--the ruin that is coming upon me and those innocent ones who must suffer? To attend to my work is impossible!" "Surely not." "You know--no one better--that for years I have never attended to my work properly. Do not think that I consider myself free from blame. I ought never to have allowed you to get control of the whole finances of the firm. It was my duty to have made inquiry, and to have seen that everything belonging to our clients was in perfect order. I have been criminally neglectful--I see that very clearly;" and as he spoke his own condemnation there was a sob in his throat. "Yes; but how does all this prevent you from coming to the office? Is it not just the other way? And for a short time there is no reason to be afraid. What we have to dread most is the coming of Morris Thornton, and that, I hear, will not be till some time next week. That gives us a little breathing-space." "Till some time next week!" said Eversleigh. "That's not much of a respite." "Still, it's something. But there is another thing I have to tell you." "What's that?" dully asked Eversleigh, telling himself that at any rate he knew the worst. "We got a telegram from Bennet saying he was drawing on us for two thousand pounds." "Well, can't we pay it?" "Certainly; but it is inconvenient. The withdrawal of this sum from our bank account seriously reduces our balance." "What is our balance?" "About six thousand. With care, and if it were not for the coming of Thornton, we might be able to carry on for a long time." "I have been thinking over our affairs," said Eversleigh, "since you spoke to me yesterday, and it seems to me we ought to call in a first-class accountant to make a thorough investigation." "And what would be the inevitable result?" asked Silwood, drily. "We should know--I should know--how we stand." "But I know quite well." "I suppose so. What is the amount of your--of our, I suppose I must say--defalcations?" "About four hundred thousand. That would be a nice thing for an accountant to discover, to certify to! No, Francis, it is absurd to call in an accountant. It would not be long before he found out we were insolvent, and--defaulters. What service would that be to you or to the firm? None whatever." "No, perhaps it would not do," acquiesced Eversleigh, weakly. "You said four hundred thousand. How could you have been such a fool as to lose so much money? Four hundred thousand!" "I was a fool, Frank. But it's easy enough for a wise man to lose more than that on the Stock Exchange."