‘Is Denbow willing to exhibit his books?’

’Of course he is.  I’ve seen them.  It isn’t speculative, you know; honest, straightforward business.’

‘What part do you propose to take in it yourself?’

’Why, Denbow’s part —­ without the betting.  I shall go in for the business for all I’m worth; work day and night.  And look here, Rolfe.  It isn’t as if I had no security to offer.  You see, I have my private income; that gives me a pull over the ordinary man of business just starting.  Suppose I borrow three —­ four —­ five hundred pounds; why, I can afford to make over stock or receipts —­ anything in that way —­ to the lender.  Four per cent, that’s what I offer, if it’s a simple loan.’

‘You would keep the man —­ what’s his name?’

’Hobcraft.  Decidedly.  Couldn’t do without him.  He has been having thirty-five shillings a week.’

Harvey rose, and led the way to the smoking-room.  His companion had become a new man; the glow of excitement gave him a healthier look, and he talked more like the Cecil Morphew of earlier days, whom Rolfe had found and befriended at the hotel in Brussels.

’There’s nothing to be ashamed of in a business of this kind.  If only her father was dead, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind it. —­ Ah, Rolfe, if only she and I, both of us, had had a little more courage!  Do you know what I think?  It’s the weak people that do most harm in the world.  They suffer, of course, but they make others suffer as well.  If I were like you —­ ah, if I were like you!’ Harvey laughed.

CHAPTER 8

To Alma, on his return, he gave a full account of all he had heard and done.  The story of Hugh Carnaby’s good fortune interested her greatly.  She elicited every detail of which Harvey had been informed; asked shrewd questions; and yet had the air of listening only for her amusement.

‘Should you have thought Redgrave likely to do such a thing?’ Rolfe inquired.

’Oh, I don’t know him at all well.  He has been a friend of Sibyl’s for a long time —­ so, of course ——­’

Her voice dropped, but in a moment she was questioning again.

‘You say that Mr. Redgrave went to see him at Coventry?’

‘Yes.  Redgrave must have heard he was there, from Sibyl, I suppose.’

‘And that was two days ago?’

‘So Carnaby said —­ Why?’

’Somebody —­ oh, I think it was Mrs. Rayner Mann, yesterday —­ said Mr Redgrave was in Paris.’

Cecil Morphew’s affairs had much less interest for her; but when Harvey said that he was going to town again tomorrow, to look at the shop in Westminster Bridge Road, she regarded him with an odd smile.

‘You surely won’t get mixed up in things of that kind?’

‘It might be profitable,’ he answered very quietly; ’and —­ one doesn’t care to lose any chance of that kind —­ just now ——­’