"`I do pretty well, as you can guess, by the way in which I live,' he remarked at the conclusion of his strange confession. `But with a smart confederate, and I am sure you would prove one, I could quadruple my gains. One is hampered by working alone. It's a scoundrel's business, of course. But I can always persuade myself I am not really doing very much harm, certainly not as much as the swindling sort of company-promoter. I win money from rich fools, rob them, if you like; it does at least as much good in my pockets as theirs.' "I suppose there was already some moral kink in me waiting to blossom forth under proper encouragement. For though I was very much startled, I cannot say that I was profoundly shocked, as I might have been by a less subtle form of robbery. "I did not accept or refuse that night, I wanted to think. I knew it was the turning of the ways. On the one hand well-paid roguery, with the accompanying delights of the fashionable world, on the other the deadly, drab life of the poor City drudge. In the morning my mind was made up. I went into partnership with my new friend." "And you made a fortune, I suppose?" asked Spencer, in a very cold voice. Esmond shook his head, and Spencer was not at all sure that the next words were truthful ones. "No, a comfortable living, nothing more. We made a good deal, but we had to lose a good deal, too, in order to avert suspicion." "Your friend is dead, you say. So you went on with it after his death?" "Yes, for a little time alone. Then I, too, got in a partner, the man who was with me to-night." There was a long silence between the two men. Spencer broke it first. "And what are your plans?" he asked. "I shall sneak out of the country to-morrow morning and make my way to France. I shall hide myself in some little out-of-the-way village under an assumed name, and rust out." The little man rose and looked at his former friend with an embarrassed air. "Well, thanks for having listened to me so patiently. It has been a tremendous relief to me to pour it all out." He did not offer his hand, for he felt certain it would not be taken. Spencer stopped him as he was at the door. "You have money, I suppose, something put by out of your--your winnings?" Esmond's voice was hesitating. Again it was very doubtful if he was speaking the truth. "Hardly a _sou_ out of them. It was lightly come, lightly go, all the time. But my father left me a little bit which will keep me going in a cheap place." Spencer did not believe him. The probability was he had put away safely a snug little nest-egg, in view of the detection which might come at any moment of such a hazardous occupation. "One word before you go," said the young man finally. "Is there much cheating going on at Elsinore Gardens?" Esmond turned and looked the speaker straight in the face. This time he certainly seemed to be speaking the truth, but he might be a most accomplished liar.