"And I'll ask you to remember that I'm consulting you professionally, and in confidence. I should naturally not have come to you if I had had any fear that you would so far forget yourself as to blab of business outside your office. No gentleman would allow himself to do such a thing." That touched him. "Well, I 'ope I know 'ow to be'ave like a gentleman," he said in an injured voice. "Nothing that's said in this room by a client goes outside it." "Oh, I knew I was safe enough with you, really," I said carelessly. "I have proved that by coming here." Then I gave him my instructions about selling the shares on a certain date, speaking as if I had information as to some favourable movement likely to take place before then; and impressed him somewhat with my air of inside knowledge. I left him fairly confident that he would not give me away. The day I had fixed on for selling was the day before Miriam and I had arranged to leave the country together. I should realise my comfortable fortune, and Herman Eppstein might say what he liked about it afterwards. CHAPTER XXVII We sat down to dinner that evening without Edward, but nobody expressed any anxiety about him, as his philanthropic enterprises often detached him from the family circle. I said nothing about our visits of the morning, as I thought that Mr. and Mrs. Perry would be disturbed if they knew that he was taking part in fanning the agitation amongst the masters and mistresses of Culbut. The evening papers were full of it. Mr. and Mrs. Bolster were still in a state of siege, and it seemed unlikely that they would be dislodged unless the authorities prevailed on their various tradespeople to stop their supplies. Considering Mr. Bolster's treatment of them, I should have thought this would not be difficult, but it was explained to me that if they did not supply a customer with goods ordered by him, they not only had those goods left on their hands, but had to receive payment for them as well. Consequently, they would not consent to starve out Mr. and Mrs. Bolster unless they were indemnified against gain by the police; but probably that would be done in a day or two. In the meantime, Mr. Bolster was having the time of his life, and providing splendid copy for the papers.