As it happened, the answer from the Insurance Company (directed to the firm) was given to Mr. Bradshaw along with the other business letters.  It was to the effect that Mr. Benson’s shares had been sold and transferred above a twelvemonth ago, which sufficiently accounted for the circumstance that no notification of the bonus had been sent to him.

Mr. Bradshaw tossed the letter on one side, not displeased to have a good reason for feeling a little contempt at the unbusiness-like forgetfulness of Mr. Benson, at whose instance some one had evidently been writing to the Insurance Company.  On Mr. Farquhar’s entrance, he expressed this feeling to him.

“Really,” he said, “these Dissenting ministers have no more notion of exactitude in their affairs than a child!  The idea of forgetting that he has sold his shares, and applying for the bonus, when it seems he has transferred them only a year ago!”

Mr. Farquhar was reading the letter while Mr. Bradshaw spoke.

“I don’t quite understand it,” said he.  “Mr. Benson was quite clear about it.  He could not have received his half-yearly dividends unless he had been possessed of these shares; and I don’t suppose Dissenting ministers, with all their ignorance of business, are unlike other men in knowing whether or not they receive the money that they believe to be owing to them.”

“I should not wonder if they were—­if Benson was, at any rate.  Why, I never knew his watch to be right in all my life—­it was always too fast or too slow; it must have been a daily discomfort to him.  It ought to have been.  Depend upon it, his money matters are just in the same irregular state; no accounts kept, I’ll be bound.”

“I don’t see that that follows,” said Mr. Farquhar, half amused.  “That watch of his is a very curious one—­belonged to his father and grandfather, I don’t know how far back.”

“And the sentimental feelings which he is guided by prompt him to keep it, to the inconvenience of himself and every one else.”

Mr. Farquhar gave up the subject of the watch as hopeless.

“But about this letter.  I wrote, at Mr. Benson’s desire, to the Insurance Office, and I am not satisfied with this answer.  All the transaction has passed through our hands.  I do not think it is likely Mr. Benson would write and sell the shares without, at any rate, informing us at the time, even though he forgot all about it afterwards.”

“Probably he told Richard, or Mr. Watson.”

“We can ask Mr. Watson at once.  I am afraid we must wait till Richard comes home, for I don’t know where a letter would catch him.”  Mr. Bradshaw pulled the bell that rang into the head-clerk’s room, saying as he did so—­

“You may depend upon it, Farquhar, the blunder lies with Benson himself.  He is just the man to muddle away his money in indiscriminate charity, and then to wonder what has become of it.”

Mr. Farquhar was discreet enough to hold his tongue.