thousands of pounds per annum; and you
give me twenty pounds! Fie, Captain Clavering. It is only just for me to
speak to you--this! That is all. Come; when will you bring me fifty?"

"By George--fifty!"

"Yes; fifty; for another beginning. What; seven thousands of pounds per
annum, and make difficulty for fifty pounds! You have a handy way with
your glove. Will you come with fifty pounds to-morrow?" Archie, with the
drops of perspiration standing on his brow, and now desirous of getting
out again into the street, promised that he would come again on the
following day with the required sum.

"Just for another beginning! And now, good-morning, Captain Clavering. I
will do my possible with Julie. Julie is very fond of me, and I think
you have been right in coming here. But twenty pounds was too little,
even for a beginning." Mercenary wretch; hungry, greedy, ill-conditioned
woman--altogether of the harpy breed! As Archie Clavering looked into
her gray eyes, and saw there her greed and her hunger, his flesh crept
upon his bones. Should he not succeed with Julia, how much would this
excellent lady cost him?

As soon as he was gone the excellent lady made an intolerable grimace,
shaking herself and shrugging her shoulders, and walking up and down
the room with her dirty wrapper held close round her. "Bah," she said.
"Bah!" And as she thought of the heavy stupidity of her late visitor she
shrugged herself and shook herself again violently, and clutched up her
robe still more closely. "Bah!" It was intolerable to her that a man
should be such a fool, even though she was to make money by him. And
then, that such a man should conceive it to be possible that he should
become the husband of a woman with seven thousand pounds a year! Bah!

Archie, as he walked away from Mount Street, found it difficult to
create a triumphant feeling within his own bosom. He had been awkward,
slow and embarrassed, and the spy had been too much for him. He was
quite aware of that, and he was aware also that even the sagacious
Doodles had been wrong. There had, at any rate, been no necessity for
making a difficulty about the money. The Russian spy had known her
business too well to raise troublesome scruples on that point. That she
was very good at her trade he was prepared to acknowledge; but a fear
came upon him that he would find the article too costly for his own
purposes. He remembered the determined tone in which she had demanded
the fifty