"Pish!" said the other contemptuously as he let himself sink back slowly into his chair. "Don't try and bully, Rob. It did when I came down, weak and half-starved and miserable, after two years' imprisonment; but it won't do now. I don't look hard up, do I?" "No; because you've spent my money on your wretched dress." "I only spent your money when I couldn't make any for myself. I haven't had a penny of you lately; and as to being a coward and a cur, Rob, when I stood in the dock, and you were brought as a witness against me, and I could have got off half my punishment by speaking the truth, was I a sneak then, or did I stand, firm?" There was a pause. "Answer me; did I stand firm then?" cried Crellock. "You did stand firm, and I have been grateful," said Hallam, in a milder tone. "Look here, Stephen, why should we quarrel?" "Ah, that's better, man," said Crellock, laughing. "You were so terribly fierce with me last time, and I was brought down to a door-mat. Anybody might have wiped his shoes on me. I'm better now." "And you've come down to try and bully me," said Hallam fiercely. His visitor sat back, looking at him hard, without speaking for a few minutes, and then he said quietly: "I give it up." "Give what up--the attempt?" "I couldn't give that up, because I was not going to attempt anything," said Crellock, smiling; "I mean give it up about you. What is it in you, Rob Hallam, that made so many fellows like you, and give way to you in everything? I don't know. But there, never mind that. Won't you shake hands?" "Tell me first why you have come down here. Do you want money?" "No." "Then why did you come down?" Crellock's face softened a little, and it was not an ill-looking countenance as he sat there, softly tapping the arm of the chair. At last he spoke. "I never had many friends," he said huskily. "Father and mother went when I was a little one, and Uncle Richard gave me my education, telling me brutally that I was an encumbrance. I always had to stop at school through the holidays, and when I was old enough he put me, as you know, in the bank, and told me he had done his duty by me, and I must now look to myself." "Yes, I know," said Hallam, coldly. "Then I got to know you, Rob, and you seemed always to be everything a man ought to be--handsome, and clever at every game, the best writer, the best at figures. Then, after office hours, you could sing and play, and tell the best story. There, Rob, you know I always got to feel towards you as if I was your dog. There was nothing I wouldn't have done for you. Then came those--" "Hush!"