n the uneducated who had relations
with Otway, and explained perhaps by his quiet air of authority. To
those who served him, no man was more considerate, but he never became
familiar with them; without a trace of pretentiousness in his
demeanour, he was viewed by such persons as one sensibly above them,
with some solid right to rule.

In the selection of his place of business, he of course exercised more
care, but here, too, luck favoured him. A Russian merchant moving into
more spacious quarters ceded to him a small office in Fenchurch Street,
with furniture which he purchased at a very reasonable price. To begin
with, he hired only a lad; it would be seen in a month or so whether he
had need of more assistance. If business grew, he was ready to take
upon himself a double share, for the greater his occupation the less
his time for brooding. Labour was what he asked, steady, dogged toil;
and his only regret was that he could not work with his hands in the
open air, at some day-long employment followed by hunger and weariness
and dreamless sleep.

The partner whose name he did not wish to mention was John Jacks. Very
soon after learning the result to the young man of Jerome Otway's death
(the knowledge came in an indirect way half a year later), Mr. Jacks
wrote to Piers a letter implying what he knew, and made offer of a
certain capital towards the proposed business. Piers did not at once
accept the offer, for difficulties had arisen on the side of his friend
Moncharmont, who, on Otway's announcement of inability to carry out the
scheme they had formed together, turned in another direction. A year
passed; John Jacks again wrote; and, Moncharmont's other projects
having come to nothing, the friends decided at length to revert to
their original plan, with the difference that a third partner supplied
capital equal to that which Moncharmont himself put into the venture.
The arrangement was strictly business-like; John Jacks, for all his
kindliness, had no belief in anything else where money was concerned,
and Piers Otway would not have listened to any other sort of
suggestion. Piers put into the affair only his brains, his vigour, and
his experience; he was to reap no reward but that fairly resulting from
the exercise of these qualities.

Only a day or two before leaving Odessa he received a letter from Mrs.
Hannaford, in which she hinted that Irene Derwent was likely to marry.
On reaching London, he found at the hotel he