"I got tired of waiting. You are half an hour over the time, Vic. I thought of going to your rooms."
"I slept later than I intended," Nevill replied. "I had a night of it."
The Honorable Bertie Raven, second son of the Earl of Runnymede, might have stepped out of one of Poole's fashion-plates, so far as dress was concerned. But there was a strained look on his handsome, patrician face, and in his blue eyes, that told of a gnawing mental anxiety. He linked arms with his companion, and drew him to the edge of the pavement.
"Is it all right?" he asked, pleadingly and hurriedly. "Were you able to fix the thing up for me?"
"You are sure there is no other way, Bertie?"
"None, Vic. I have until this evening, and then--"
"Don't worry. I saw Benjamin and Company yesterday."
"You mean for your indorsement on the bill?" the lad exclaimed, blushing. "Vic, you're a trump. You're the best fellow that ever lived, and I can't tell you how grateful I am. God only knows what a weight you've lifted from my mind. I'm going to run steady after this, and with economy I can save enough out of my allowance--"
"My dear boy, you are wasting your gratitude over a trifle. Could I refuse so simple a favor to a friend?"
"I don't know any one else who would have done as much, Vic. I was in an awful hole. Will--will they give me plenty of time?"
"As much as you like. And, I say, Bertie, this affair must be quite _entre nous_. There are plenty of chaps--good fellows, too--who would like to use my name occasionally. But one must draw the line--"
"I understand, Vic. I'll be mum as an oyster."
"Well, suppose we go and have the thing over," said Nevill, "and then we'll lunch together."
They turned eastward, walking briskly, and a few minutes later they entered a narrow court off Duke street, St. James. Through a dingy and unpretentious doorway, unmarked by sign or plate, they passed into the premises of Benjamin and Company. In a dark, cramped office, scantily furnished, they found an elderly Jewish gentleman seated at a desk.
Without delay, with a smoothness that spoke well for the weight and influence of Victor Nevill's name, the little matter of business, as the Jew smilingly called it, was transacted. A three-months' bill for five hundred pounds was drawn up for Bertie's signature and Nevill's indorsement. The lad hesitated briefly, then wrote his name in a bold hand. He resisted the allurements of some jewelry, offered him in part payment, and received the amount of the bill, less a prodigious discount for interest. The Jew servilely bowed his customers out.