"

Mr Bunker cracked a nut, looking very serious; then he leant on one elbow,
glanced up at the ceiling pensively, and sighed.

"I hope I do not ask vat I should not," the Baron interposed, courteously.

"My dear Baron, ask what you like," replied Mr Bunker. "In a city full of
strangers, or of friends who have forgotten me, you alone have my
confidence. My story is a common one of youthful folly and present
repentance, but such as it is, you are welcome to it."

The Baron gulped down half a glass of port and leaned forward
sympathetically.

"My father," Mr Bunker continued with an air of half-sad reminiscence, "is
one of the largest landowners and the head of one of the most ancient
families in the north of England. I was his eldest son and heir. I am
still, I have every reason to believe, his eldest son, but my heirship, I
regret to say, is more doubtful. I spent a prodigal youth and a larger sum
of money than my poor father approved of. He was a strict though a kind
parent, and for the good of my health and the replenishment of the family
coffers, which had been sadly drained by my extravagance, he sent me
abroad. There I have led a roving life for the last six years, and at
last, my wild oats sown, reaped, and gathered in (and a well-filled
stackyard they made, I can assure you), I decided to return to England and
become an ornament to respectable society. Like you, I arrived in London
to-day, but only to find to my disgust that my family have gone to winter
in Egypt. So you see that at present I am like a shipwrecked sailor
clinging to a rock and waiting, with what patience I can muster, for a
boat to take me off."

"You mean," inquired the Baron, anxiously, "that you vish to go to Egypt
at vonce?"

"I had thought of it; though there is a difficulty in the way, I admit."

"You vill not stay zen here?" "My dear Baron, why should I? I have neither
friends nor----"

He stopped abruptly.

"I do not like to zink I shall lose your company so soon."

"I admit," allowed Mr Bunker, "that this fortunate meeting tempts me to
stay."

"Vy not?" said the Baron, cordially. "Can your fader not vait to see you?"

"I hardly think he will worry about me, I confess."

"Zen stay, my goot Bonker!"

"Unfortunately there is the same difficulty as stands in the way of my
going to Egypt."

"And may I inquire vat zat is?"

"To tell you the truth," replied Mr Bunker, with an air of reluctant
candour, "my funds are rather