ar the sound of music.

"Isn't this our dance?" I said to Miss White, who was taking a breather
at the hall door. "One moment," I added and I got out of my coat and
umbrella.

"Is it? I thought you'd gone."

"Oh, no, I decided to stay, after all. I found out that the trams go all
night."

We walked in together.

"I won't be more autobiographical than I can help," I said, "but I must
say it's hard life, a doctor's. One is called away in the middle of a
dance to a difficult case of--of mumps or something, and--well, there
you are. A delightful evening spoilt. If one is lucky one may get back
in time for a waltz or two at the end.

"Indeed," I said, as we began to dance, "at one time to-night I quite
thought I wasn't going to get back here at all."

XVII. THE FINANCIER

This is how I became a West African mining magnate with a stake in the
Empire.

During February I grew suddenly tired of waiting for the summer to
begin. London in the summer is a pleasant place, and chiefly so because
you can keep on buying evening papers to read the cricket news. In
February life has no such excitements to offer. So I wrote to my
solicitor about it.

"I want you," I wrote, "to buy me fifty rubber shares, so that I can
watch them go up and down." And I added, "Brokerage one-eighth," to show
that I knew what I was talking about.

He replied tersely as follows:

"Don't be a fool. If you have any money to invest I can get you a safe
mortgage at five per cent. Let me know."

It's a funny thing how the minds of solicitors run upon mortgages. If
they would only stop to think for a moment they would see that you
couldn't possibly watch a safe mortgage go up and down. I left my
solicitor alone and consulted Henry on the subject. In the intervals
between golf and golf Henry dabbles in finance.

"You don't want anything gilt-edged, I gather," he said. It's wonderful
how they talk.

"I want it to go up and down," I explained patiently, and I indicated
the required movement with my umbrella.

"What about a little flutter in oil?" he went on, just like a financier
in a novel.

"I'll have a little flutter in raspberry jam if you like. Anything as
long as I can rush every night for the last edition of the evening
papers and say now and then, 'Good heavens, I'm ruined!'"

"Then you'd better try a gold mine," said Henry bitterly, in the voice
of one who has tried. "Take your choice," and he threw the paper over to
me.

"