Four days later, a figure, shrunk, shaky, and looking prematurely old, with the glaze of intoxication scarcely faded from his eye, walked into Mr. Borley’s office.  That respectable gentleman looked and looked again.

“Good Heavens,” he said at length; “it isn’t Arthur Heigham.”

“Yes, it is, though,” said an unequal voice; “I’ve come for some money.  I’ve got none left and I am going to Madeira to-morrow.”

“My dear boy, what has happened to you?  You look so very strange.  I have been expecting to see your marriage in the paper.  Why, it’s only a few days ago that you left to be married.”

“A few days, a few years, you mean.  I’ve been jilted, that’s all, nothing to speak of, you know, but I had rather not talk about it, if you don’t mind.  I’m like a nag with a flayed back, don’t like the sight of the saddle at present,” and poor Arthur, mentally and physically exhausted, put his head down on his arm and gulped.

The old lawyer took in the situation at a glance.

“Hard hit,” he said to himself; “and gone on to the burst,” and then aloud, “well, well, that has happened to many a man, in fact, you mightn’t believe it, but it once happened to me, and I don’t look much the worse, do I?  But we won’t talk about it.  The less said of a bad business the better, that’s my maxim.  And so you are going abroad again.  Have you got any friends at Madeira?”

Arthur nodded.

“And you want some more money.  Let me see, I sent you 200 pounds last week.”

“That was for my wedding tour.  I’ve spent it now.  You can guess how I have spent it.  Pleasant contrast, isn’t it?  Gives rise to moral reflections.”

“Come, come, Heigham, you must not give way like that.  These things happen to most men in the course of their lives, and if they are wise it teaches them that gingerbread isn’t all gilt, and to set down women at their proper value, and appreciate a good one if it pleases Providence to give them one in course of time.  Don’t you go making a fool of yourself over this girl’s pretty face.  Handsome is as handsome does.  These things are hard to bear, I know, but you don’t make them any better by pitching your own reputation after a girl’s want of stability.”

“I know that you are quite right, and I am much obliged to you for your kind advice, but we won’t say anything more about it.  I suppose that you can let me have some money?”

“Oh yes, if you want it, though I think we shall have to overdraw.  What do you want?  Two hundred?  Here is the cheque.”

“I am anxious about that young fellow,” said Mr. Borley to himself, in the pause between Arthur’s departure and the entry of the next client.  “I hope his disappointment won’t send him to the dogs.  He is not of the sort who take it easy, like I did, for instance.  Dear me, that is a long while ago now.  I wonder what the details of his little affair were, and who the girl married.  Captain Shuffle! yes, show him in.”