know—­couldn’t tell!  Nobody thought of anything but spending money in these days, and racing about, and having what they called ‘a good time.’  A motor-car went past the window.  Ugly great lumbering thing, making all that racket!  But there it was, the country rattling to the dogs!  People in such a hurry that they couldn’t even care for style—­a neat turnout like his barouche and bays was worth all those new-fangled things.  And consols at 116!  There must be a lot of money in the country.  And now there was this old Kruger!  They had tried to keep old Kruger from him.  But he knew better; there would be a pretty kettle of fish out there!  He had known how it would be when that fellow Gladstone—­dead now, thank God! made such a mess of it after that dreadful business at Majuba.  He shouldn’t wonder if the Empire split up and went to pot.  And this vision of the Empire going to pot filled a full quarter of an hour with qualms of the most serious character.  He had eaten a poor lunch because of them.  But it was after lunch that the real disaster to his nerves occurred.  He had been dozing when he became aware of voices—­low voices.  Ah! they never told him anything!  Winifred’s and her mother’s.  “Monty!” That fellow Dartie—­always that fellow Dartie!  The voices had receded; and James had been left alone, with his ears standing up like a hare’s, and fear creeping about his inwards.  Why did they leave him alone?  Why didn’t they come and tell him?  And an awful thought, which through long years had haunted him, concreted again swiftly in his brain.  Dartie had gone bankrupt—­fraudulently bankrupt, and to save Winifred and the children, he—­James—­would have to pay!  Could he—­could Soames turn him into a limited company?  No, he couldn’t!  There it was!  With every minute before Emily came back the spectre fiercened.  Why, it might be forgery!  With eyes fixed on the doubted Turner in the centre of the wall, James suffered tortures.  He saw Dartie in the dock, his grandchildren in the gutter, and himself in bed.  He saw the doubted Turner being sold at Jobson’s, and all the majestic edifice of property in rags.  He saw in fancy Winifred unfashionably dressed, and heard in fancy Emily’s voice saying:  “Now, don’t fuss, James!” She was always saying:  “Don’t fuss!” She had no nerves; he ought never to have married a woman eighteen years younger than himself.  Then Emily’s real voice said: 

“Have you had a nice nap, James?”

Nap!  He was in torment, and she asked him that!

“What’s this about Dartie?” he said, and his eyes glared at her.

Emily’s self-possession never deserted her.

“What have you been hearing?” she asked blandly.

“What’s this about Dartie?” repeated James.  “He’s gone bankrupt.”

“Fiddle!”

James made a great effort, and rose to the full height of his stork-like figure.

“You never tell me anything,” he said; “he’s gone bankrupt.”