, as I supposed, he is hard up, and that I am not the first he
has got into the same scrape--not intending it, I am sure. He's really
a very good fellow, and, if I wanted security, would be it to-morrow to
any amount."

"I've no doubt of it--to any amount!" said the Colonel.

"So I thought it best to conclude the matter at once. I had saved
nothing from my allowance, munificent as it is. I could not have the
face to ask Mr. Darrell to remunerate me for my own imprudence. I should
not like to borrow from my mother--I know it would be inconvenient to
her.

"I sold both horse and cabriolet this morning. I had just been getting
the cheque cashed when I met you. I intend to take the money myself to
the bill-holder. I have just the sum--L200."

"The horse alone was worth that," said the Colonel, with a faint sigh--
"not to be replaced. France and Russia have the pick of our stables.
However, if it is sold, it is sold--talk no more of it. I hate painful
subjects. You did right not to renew the bill--it is opening an account
with Ruin; and though I avoid preaching on money matters, or, indeed,
any other (preaching is my nephew's vocation, not mine), yet allow me to
extract from you a solemn promise never again to sign bills, nor to draw
them. Be to your friend what you please except security for him. Orestes
never asked Pylades to help him to borrow at fifty per cent. Promise
me--your word of honour as a gentleman! Do you hesitate?"

"My dear Colonel," said Lionel frankly, "I do hesitate. I might promise
not to sign a money-lender's bill on my own account, though really
I think you take rather an exaggerated view of what is, after all, a
common occurrence--"

"Do I?" said the Colonel meekly. "I'm sorry to hear it. I detest
exaggeration. Go on. You might promise not to ruin yourself--but you
object to promise not to help in the ruin of your friend."

"That is exquisite irony, Colonel," said Lionel, piqued; "but it does not
deal with the difficulty, which is simply this: When a man whom you call
friend--whom you walk with, ride with, dine with almost every day, says
to you 'I am in immediate want of a few hundreds--I don't ask you to
lend them to me, perhaps you can't--but assist me to borrow--trust to my
honour that the debt shall not fall on you,--why, then, it seems as if
to refuse the favour was to tell the man you call friend that you doubt
his honour; and though I have been caught once in that way, I feel that
I mus