"I could not say, sir. Not one of our regular customers, sir," with a touch of mild depreciation. "A dark gentleman, with a beard, a little lame, I fancy." As Krupp had invented the gentleman and his opinion to meet the occasion, he was right in depriving him of the rank of a regular customer. "Oh!" murmured Louis. "By the way, has Mr. Gibbs come yet?" "Mr. Gibbs, sir?" "Yes, an American. I have an appointment with him this afternoon. If he comes in while I am over at Faulkner's just tell him, will you? I think he's stopping at the Majestic." The Majestic being the latest rival hotel at Hanbridge, Krupp raised his eyebrows in a peculiar way and nodded his head. Just as Krupp had invented a gentleman, so now Louis was inventing one. Neither Krupp nor Louis guessed the inventive act of the other. Krupp's act was a caprice, a piece of embroidery, charming and unnecessary. But Louis was inventing with serious intent, for he had to make his presence at the Five Towns Hotel on Easter Saturday seem natural and inevitable. "And also I want the Cunard list of sailings, and the White Star, too. There's a Cunard boat from Liverpool on Monday, isn't there?" "I don't _think_ so, sir," said Krupp, "but I'll see." "I understood from Mr. Gibbs there was. And I'm going to Liverpool by that early train to-morrow." "Sunday, sir?" "Yes, I must be in Liverpool to-morrow night." Louis went across to the station to Faulkner's. He considered that he was doing very well. And after all, why not go to America--not on Monday, for he was quite aware that no boat left on Monday--but in a few days, after he had received the whole sum that Thomas Batchgrew held for him. He could quite plausibly depart on urgent business connected with new capitalistic projects. He could quite plausibly remain in America as long as convenient. America beckoned to him. He remembered all the appetizing accounts that he had ever heard from American commercial travellers of Broadway and Fifth Avenue--incredible streets. In America he might treble, quadruple, his already vast capital. The romance of the idea intoxicated him. IV