ap
became the most animated creature in Huntingdonshire when the
arrangement was concluded. He opened the piano and sang song after song,
he jabbered at me in French, he got on the big table and danced, he took
a tumbler and a napkin and did conjuring tricks, he ordered a bottle of
brandy and cigars. I was rather tired when I came in, but he would have
none of it. He told me stories, and I judged he must have traveled a
good deal. He asked me if I knew anything about automobiles. I rather
wondered at this. 'I am going to take up an agency,' he said. 'That's
why I want to get to town.' It seemed a mad thing for a gentleman to do,
and I said so. He darted a fierce look at me over his glass of brandy.
'It takes a gentleman to sell to a gentleman,' he said.

"I didn't lie awake very long after we did go to bed, I can assure you.
We took our candles, I remember, and I told him we must breakfast
together. The next thing I remember was the chambermaid knocking at my
door and saying it was ten o'clock. Of course he was gone. You've been
expecting me to tell you that, I suppose. So he had gone and I was
fourteen pounds to the bad, unless he redeemed his IOU. He had told the
landlord to drive him into Peterboro'; and as I came down to breakfast
the trap returned. Of course, neither of us ever expected to see him
again, and when I looked at his IOU in the cold light of the day, it
seemed a very flimsy guarantee for my money. There was only one thing
about that IOU. It was written on the unused page torn from a letter,
and the watermark of the paper was Lydgate Bond. It was the same size as
Trojan Club paper too, for you know I belong to the Trojan Club, and
Trojans are not men who write to outsiders much. Not on club paper
anyway. In fact, the very audacity of the man led me to blame myself for
doubting him. He had not behaved just as a gentleman should, but on the
other hand he had done nothing underhand. There was a damn-you look
about him that made it unbelievable that he was a fraud. Soon after
breakfast I set out on my tramp, and, going through Stilton and
Huntingdon, made for Cambridge. All the way along I could not help
thinking about my boon companion of the night before, and wondering if I
should ever meet him again. It seemed very unlikely. He was so
interesting, quite apart from his peculiar financial position, and he
gave one such an impression of indomitable will power, with his
hawk-like face and brilliant eyes, that