n gestured imperiously toward the fat man, and
Dupont tiptoed over to him, whispering hoarsely, "I didn't know he was
so attached to Edward, did you, Potter?"

Potter pressed his puffy hands together till they streaked red and
white.

"Good heavens! Good heavens!" he burst out, "this is awful! Where can
Webb be?"

Dupont stared, then shrugged his shoulders vaguely and returned to his
seat. "I really didn't know he was so attached to Edward," he murmured
to Weldon confidentially.

They sat in silence. The president's great bulk stretched among them
like some sleeping, foreign animal in a zoological garden. It was like
a funeral; the funeral of some associate, attended with perfunctory
punctiliousness. The blow was financial, not human: it was the death
of so much bank stock.

Another knock. Again Weldon, recognised master of ceremonies now,
opened the door, this time for the doctor. It was the president's own
doctor; Weldon wondered why it was that important men's doctors were
always to be got so quickly. Did they have a secret call in the event
of a bank president's death? What would happen in case one were called
from the birth, say, of another bank president's son? Imagine the
doctor's state of mind ... he shook himself to dissipate such idiotic
thoughts: his mind worked as the mind of one in a worried, hurried
dream.

"Good-day, gentlemen, a sad errand for me," said the doctor gravely.
"Ah, yes, a little more light, please? Ah, yes. Instantaneous, of
course. Half an hour, forty minutes, I should say? Ah, yes. I
supposed so. Any one present ... any shock or excitement?"

Weldon spoke briefly. He had been discussing bank matters with Mr.
Deeping. He had mentioned a few of the matters in discussion when Mr.
Deeping had put his hand into his pocket, appeared to sustain some
stroke, slipped back in his chair, and fallen dead-weight on the bent
arm. Just as they saw him. It was impossible to move him, except to
free him from the chair. He appeared to have died instantly. It had
been made known immediately.

"Ah, yes," said the doctor. "Just as I expected. I warned him of it.
Not a month ago. A great loss to the community, gentlemen. All the
arrangements, now ... Mr. Dupont, I suppose you ... or if you had
rather that I...."

"If you would, please," said the brother-in-law gratefully, "I am bad
at that sort of thing--I--my head----"

"Ah, yes. Perfectly natural. I will have the bod