'"

"If it should prove, sir, that money is owing," Mr. Cheeseman said, with
that exalted candour which made a weak customer condemn his own eyes and
nose, "no effort on my part shall be wanting, bad as the times are,
to procure it and discharge it. In every commercial transaction I
have found, and my experience is now considerable, that confidence, as
between man and man, is the only true footing to go upon. And how can
true confidence exist, unless--"

"Unless a man shows some honesty. And a man who keeps books such as
these," pursued the visitor, suggesting a small kick to a pile of
ledgers, "can hardly help knowing whether he owes a large sum or whether
he has paid it. But that is not the only question now. In continuation
of that document I find a condition, a clause provisional, that it
shall be at the option of the aforesaid Montagu Carne, and his
representatives, either to receive the interest at the rate before
mentioned and thereby secured, or, if he or they should so prefer, to
take for their own benefit absolutely three-fourths of the net profits,
proceeds, or other increment realised by the trading ventures, or other
employment from time to time, of the said London Trader. Also there is a
covenant for the insurance of the said vessel, and a power of sale, and
some other provisions about access to trading books, etc., with which
you have, no doubt, a good acquaintance, Mr. Cheeseman."

That enterprising merchant, importer of commodities, and wholesale and
retail dealer was fond of assuring his numerous friends that "nothing
ever came amiss to him." But some of them now would have doubted about
this if they had watched his face as carefully as Caryl Carne was
watching it. Mr. Cheeseman could look a hundred people in the face, and
with great vigour too, when a small account was running. But the
sad, contemptuous, and piercing gaze--as if he were hardly worth
penetrating--and the twirl of the black tuft above the lip, and the firm
conviction on the broad white forehead that it was confronting a rogue
too common and shallow to be worth frowning at--all these, and the facts
that were under them, came amiss to the true James Cheeseman.

"I scarcely see how to take this," he said, being clever enough to
suppose that a dash of candour might sweeten the embroilment. "I will
not deny that I was under obligation to your highly respected
father, who was greatly beloved for his good-will to his neighbours.
'Cheeseman