"Then why don't you pay it?"

"Why don't I pay it?" snarled Mark. "Am I a baronet with plenty of
money?"

"No; but you have as good an allowance as I. You ought to be able to
pay your tailor's bill."

"'Tisn't a bill for clothes," said Mark, sulkily, and he picked up a
book, opened it, and threw it impatiently across the room, making his
cousin wince a little.

"What then? Surely you haven't been such a fool as to borrow money of
him?"

"Yes, I have been such a fool as to borrow money of him," cried Mark,
savagely. "I couldn't help being short; he offered it to me, and, of
course, I took it. So would you."

"No, I shouldn't," said Richard, quietly. "He did write to offer me
money once--when I first came, and I refused it, and haven't been in his
shop since."

"But then we're not all such good young men as you are, Dick," sneered
Mark. "I did take it, and the brute has been running up interest and
renewing, as he calls it, and gammoning me into ordering fresh clothes.
He made this beastly jacket, and all sorts of things that don't fit; and
now, because I'm not ready to pay his swindling bill and the wretched
paper, he has been threatening, and ended by writing to old Draycott."

"Pay him then, and have done with him."

"Will you help me?"

"Of course, if I can."

"If you can! Why, you can, if you like."

"I don't know about that," said the other, good-humouredly; "I've been
spending a good deal of money in music things lately."

"Bosh! you can get me out of the hole, if you like."

"How much do you owe him?"

Mark threw the end of his cigarette with all his force into the
fireplace, and ground his teeth for a few moments before muttering
between them--

"Eighty-four pounds, or so!"

"What?"

"Eighty-four pounds," snarled Mark. "Do you want me to shout it for
everyone to know?"

"But how could you get into his debt to that extent?"

"Didn't I tell you, stupid? Half of it was lent, and I gave him an
I.O.U., and he has been piling it up somehow. I don't know what he has
done. He was civil and smooth as butter till he had me tight, and now
he's showing his teeth."

"But he would not have written to Draycott unless you had been
disagreeable to him."

"Oh! wouldn't he? He threatened to a year ago, when it wasn't so much.
It was when he found out I'd been getting some togs from London. I
expect he pumped it out of that idiot Jerry Brigley. But I'm not going
to sit here exposing