in the bank,
and it's obliging a gent who won't be above orderin' a few garments to
make up for you obliging him, and--'"

"Confound you! will you let me speak?" cried Richard angrily.

"Of course, sir. Glad to hear you speak, and sorry I come at an
inconvenient time, when you were busy with your music; and--let me see--
didn't Mr Mark say something about your wanting the cash to buy a new
pianner? Or was it an old fiddle? I quite forget, sir; that I do."

"Will you be silent a minute? Did my cousin say that money was for me?"

"Oh, yes, sir; or I shouldn't have--"

"Then it was a lie--an abominable lie!" cried Richard, in a rage. "Sign
those papers and acknowledge that I had the money? No! So you can be
off, and tell him so."

Mr Isaac Simpson screwed up his face, bent over the table, and
carefully spread the three oblongs of blue paper out, one above the
other, holding the ends down, and smoothing them out slowly.

"Well," cried Richard, hotly, "do you hear what I say?"

"Oh, yes, Sir Richard Frayne, Baronet, I hear what you say," replied the
tailor: "but I was a-thinking, sir."

"Then go and think somewhere else."

"No, sir; I can't do that, because, you see, I'm thinking about you.
Here's 'undred and eighty-odd pound of a poor man's hard-earned money,
most part of which you owe me."

"It is false! I don't owe you a penny."

The tailor shook his head.

"I can't afford to lose it, Sir Richard; and you can't say but what I
want to make it easy for you with them bills."

"I do not want anything made easy for me," cried the young man; "I can
pay my just debts."

"And, don't you see, sir, it wouldn't be pleasant for you if I was to
write to your parents and guardians--leastwise, as you have no parents,
your guardians--and ask them?"

"Write to them, and so will I."

"But I don't want to do such a shabby thing about a gent as I've tried
to oblige."

"I tell you I never authorised anyone to borrow money for me, sir."

"Well, Sir Richard Frayne, Baronet, there's the transaction down in a
neat handwriting in my book, and I give a cheque for it, and there's the
cheque as come back from the bank with your name on the back, as well as
Mr Mark Frayne's on the receipt."

"What?"

"As afore said, sir; and people--I mean your lawyers and guardians--'ll
believe it. They won't be so shabby as to say you were under age when
they have lots of your money in trust."

Richard stared at the man, half-s