A Series of Cheques: their Advantages and Drawbacks--An Unknown Factor--Uncompleted Confidences--Ibsen, with Intervals--A Disappointment--A "Search-question" from Sophia--Confidence Restored 80 CHAPTER VI. =Foil and Counterfoil.= The Duties of Authorship--Peter's Continued Perversity and its Unforeseen Results--"Alfred"--The Tragic Note--An Interrupted Crisis--A Domestic Surprise 100 CHAPTER VII. =The Culminating Cheque.= Sophia Gives an Explanation, and Requests One--Her Verdict--Peter Overruled 114 CHAPTER VIII. =Paid in His Own Coin.= In Suspense: a Gleam of Comfort--Darkness Returns--The Rock Ahead--Sir William Lends his Binocular--Reappearance of an Old Enemy--A New Danger--Out of the Frying-pan 129 CHAPTER IX. =Compound Interest.= Back to the Fire Again--A Magnanimous Return--Catching at Straws--Two Total Strangers--Purely a Question of Precedence--"Hemmed in" and "Surrounded"--The Last Chance 145 CHAPTER X. =Dénoûment= 165 =The Epilogue= 170 TOURMALIN'S TIME CHEQUES Tourmalin's Time Cheques. THE PROLOGUE. _On Deck_.--_Curry and Culture_.--_Alternative Distractions_.--_A Period of Probation_.--_The Oath and the Talisman_.--_Wavering_.--_A Chronological Error_.--_The Time Bargain_.--_Tourmalin Opens an Account._ Mr. Peter Tourmalin was sitting, or rather lying, in a steamer-chair on the first-class saloon-deck of the P. and O. steamer _Boomerang_, which had not been many days as yet on the voyage home from Sydney. He had been trying to read; but it was a hot morning, and the curry, of which he had partaken freely at breakfast, had made him feel a little heavy and disinclined for mental exertion just then, particularly as Buckle's _History of Civilisation_, the first volume of which he had brought up from the ship's library, is not exactly light literature at any time. He wanted distraction of some sort, but he could not summon up sufficient energy to rise and pace the deck, as his only acquaintance on board, a Mr. Perkins, was doing with a breezy vigour which Tourmalin found himself feebly resenting.