“His velocity must have been something tremendous, to judge by the smash.”  Rickman was looking at the financial agent with an expression which some people might have been inclined to resent, but Dicky’s gaiety was proof against criticism.

“What did he die of?” Rickman asked slowly.

“What a beastly question to ask at dinner.  He died, like most people, of his way of living.  If Freddy Harden had had opportunities equal to his talents he would have smashed up ten years ago.  Talent wasn’t the word for it, it was genius—­genius.”

“I see.  And when you come across a poor struggling devil with a gift like that, you long to be kind to him, don’t you?  To bring him forward, to remove every obstacle to his career?”

“Well, yes, I suppose I did run Harden for all he was worth.  Queer fish, Harden.  He used to rave like a lunatic about his daughter; but I don’t suppose he spent a fiver on her in his life.  It’s pretty rough on her, this business.  But Loocher’ll do.  She’s got cheek enough for half a dozen.”  Dicky chuckled at the memory of his discomfiture.  “I like it.  I like a girl with some bounce in her.  Trust her to fall on her little tootsies anywhere you drop her.”

“I can’t say you’ve made the falling very easy for her.”

Dicky’s bright face clouded.  “Wot the devil has that got to do with me?  I’ve done my level best.  Why, I could have cleaned them out years ago, if I’d chosen.  Now, just to show you what sort of fellow Freddy Harden was—­last time I ever saw him, poor chap, he told me that girl of his was a regular musical genius, just a little more technique, you know, and she’d beat Paderewski into a cocked hat.  She was wonderful.  That’s the way he piled it on, and it may have been all true; he could have made a fortune, fiddling, if he hadn’t been as proud as Satan and as lazy as a wombat.  Well, I said, if that was so, I’d take her up and run her as a pro.—­for friendship, mind you.  I liked Freddy, and I was orf’ly sorry for him.  She could pay me if she pulled it off; if not, she could let it stand over till the day of judgement.”

Rickman flushed.  “Did you know anything of Miss Harden, then?”

“Not I. Never set eyes on her.  She might have been as ugly as sin for all I knew.  I risked that.”

“What did Sir Frederick say to your generous proposal?”

Dicky’s face became luminous at the recollection.  “He said he’d see me d—­d first.  But I meant it.  I’d do it to-morrow if she asked me prettily.”

“Have you any notion how she’ll be left after all this?”

“Yes.  There’s the house, and her mother’s money.  Freddy couldn’t get at that.  When it’s all settled up she can’t be so badly off, I fancy.  Still it’s a beastly back-hander in the face, poor girl.  By Jove, she does stand up to it in form, too.  Too d——­d well bred to let you know she’s hit.  You wouldn’t think she’d be plucky, to look at her, would you?  It’s queer how the breeding comes out in a woman.”