t's grey eyes looked his full in the face. "Is that intended as a
warning not to expect too much?" he asked.

Rupert's eyelids twitched a little under that direct look. "Yes," he said
briefly.

"And if I don't listen to warnings of that description?"

"You will probably get let down."

Rupert spoke recklessly, yet almost as if he could not help it.
Undoubtedly there was something magnetic about Trevor Mordaunt at times,
something that compelled. He was conscious of relief when the steady eyes
ceased to scrutinize him.

"Not by you, I think," Mordaunt said, with his quiet smile. "You may be a
rotter, my boy, but you are not one of the crooked sort."

"I've never robbed anyone, if that's what you mean." Rupert's laugh had
in it a note of bitterness that was unconsciously pathetic. "But I'm up
to the eyes in debt and pretty desperate. If I could have persuaded
Murchison to raise money on the estate, I'd have done it long ago. That's
why this offer of yours seemed too good to be true."

Mordaunt nodded. "I thought so. It's foul work floundering in that sort
of quagmire. I wonder now if you will allow me to have a look into your
affairs, or if you prefer to go to the devil your own way."

Rupert coloured and threw back his shoulders, but he did not take
offence. The leisurely proposal held none. "I'm not over keen on going to
the devil," he said. "But neither am I going to let you pay my debts,
thanks all the same."

Mordaunt glanced at him and smiled. "I think you will cancel that 'but,'"
he said, "in view of our future relationship."

Rupert hesitated, obviously wavering. "It's jolly decent of you," he said
boyishly. "You make it confoundedly difficult to refuse."

"You are not going to refuse," said Mordaunt. "No one knows better
than I do that it's ten times pleasanter to give than to receive. But
that--between friends--is not a point worth considering."

"I should think you have a good many friends," said Rupert.

"I believe I have."

"Well,"--the boy spoke with a tinge of feeling beneath his
banter--"you've added to the list to-night, and I wish you joy of your
acquisition! But don't say I didn't warn you."

"No," said Mordaunt quietly. "I won't say that." He added a moment later,
as he dropped the end of his cigarette into his coffee-cup, "I believe in
my friends, Rupert."

"Till they let you down," suggested Rupert.

"They never do."

"Then allow me to say that you are one of the luckiest fellow