Two or three late nights each fortnight are regarded as being all in the settlement's work. The eve of each Pay day finds most offices employed upon the details of transfer preparation, while many brokers have a preliminary balance sheet struck of the account's work, and this also falls to the share of what is called the Name or Ticket day. The actual Pay day spells a sharp and shorter burst of activity. The office is carpeted with bonds, embroidered with transfers, and effervescing with cheques, not to mention such details as piles of sandwiches, trays of ginger and other beer bottles, and similar refreshment for the sustenance of those who have no time to spare for regular meals. Room, too, must be reserved for the venerable lady client who wants to sell a small amount of Consols for cash at the busiest time of the day, and who looks so pathetically indignant upon being told that the transfer will not be ready for an hour. But the day spins along at a great pace, and everyone is thankful when the last batch of cheques goes into the Bank upon the stroke of four o'clock. Echoes of the settlement haunt the day following, and if the Pay day chances to fall on a Friday, there is flying round to be done in order to clear the decks for Sunday. Provided that the office is not too large a one, the number of duties that call for attention is varied enough to make a day in a broker's office much less monotonous than it is in so many other City spheres. CHAPTER XVI FROM A SOCIAL POINT OF VIEW