_It has not been my habit to give credentials when taking rooms, since I believed my name to be a sufficient guarantee of probity. However, since this appears to be a condition you require, I enclose five pounds, three guineas being for rent and the remainder towards current expenses._ _Awaiting your acknowledgment and receipt_, _Yours faithfully_, ELIPHALET CARDOMAY (with a flourish beneath). “Well, is he going? Was he wild?” demanded Mrs. Montmorency when Emma brought the note. “Neither, by the looks of it.” “Oh, dear! Give me the letter, then, and don’t stand there looking as if—if——” She could think of nothing, so opened the envelope instead. The sight of the five-pound note gave her astonishment and perplexity. “Isn’t it like him!” she exclaimed, when she had read what he had to say. “Prosy old fool!” “Eh?” inquired Emma. “I was not addressing you.” She bit one of her short, podgy fingers, and thought hard. “Wish I could see him for a moment.” “Why don’t you?” “Because you’ve let all the front room windows, like the fool you are. That’s the worst of a house without a basement.” “Go and see ’im in his room—’e’s there.” “I won’t, and I don’t want any saucy suggestions from you, either.” She tapped her foot and fingered the five-pound note indecisively. “You’ve been in the provinces all the while I’ve been abroad. Have you ever heard of Eliphalet Cardomay?” “’Course. Who ’asn’t? Runs his own companies, doesn’t ’e? I suppose anyone who’s heard of Queen Anne ’as ’eard of ’im.” “His own companies? What sort of theatres?” “Big drama houses.” “Oh! Oh! That’s the worst of being out of the swim so long. H’m! Wonder if it ’ud be a mistake——” She took a pen and wrote a receipt for five pounds. “With Mrs. Montmorency’s compliments, please, and tell him she is satisfied.” Emma placed it on the arm of Eliphalet’s chair, saying: “All right! You don’t ’ave to go, after all.” Eliphalet Cardomay’s five-pound note had created a profound impression on Mrs. Montmorency. That he, at his age, could produce so large a sum without protest or difficulty argued that he must be in a singularly sound financial position. A man who could do so much could probably do more—and if that were the case——