“That’s exactly what I told him, but, you see, he had committed himself before he realized what he was letting himself in for. ‘Chuck the whole business,’ I said to him. ‘You’ve got friends enough who’ll buy that little place and present it to you. I am willing myself to subscribe part of the money,’ and so Simmons struck. He is off, I understand, on another steamer. He has influential friends who got him a better situation than the one he held. Now, as I have said, I am willing to put some money on the table to buy that little house near Southampton. How much will you give, Mr. Schwartzbrod?” Schwartzbrod now took a gulp of the whisky and soda. His courage was returning. “Do you mean to tell me, Lord Stranleigh, that you have called a busy man like me to the West End in order to ask him for a charity subscription?” “But surely you subscribe to many charities, Mr. Schwartzbrod?” “I do not. It’s as much as I can do to keep my own head above water, without troubling with other people. I believe in being just before being generous. If I pay my debts, that’s all any man can ask.” “Most true philosophy, Mr. Schwartzbrod, but a little hard, you know. Some poor fellows get under the harrow, and surely we may stop our cultivation for a moment, and lift the harrow long enough to allow him to crawl out.” Schwartzbrod finished the whisky and soda, but made no further comment. “It was not altogether for charitable purposes that I requested the pleasure of your call. There is business mixed with it. But you, Schwartzbrod, try to place the worst side of yourself before the world. You are really a very generous man. At heart you are; now, you know it.” “I don’t know anything about it, my lord, and I do not understand the trend of this conversation.” “Well, I have come to the conclusion that you are one of the most generous men in London. You have done things that I think no other business man in London would attempt. You do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame, as I think the poet said. You’ve been doing me a great benefit, and yet you’ve kept quiet about it.” “What do you mean?” “Why, I mean Frowningshield and his hundred and fifty men on my gold reef.” “What!” roared Schwartzbrod, springing to his feet. “The kidnapping of Mackeller I did not mind. That’s all in the day’s work, and a mining engineer must expect a little rough and tumble in this world.” “I had nothing to do with that, my lord.”