oney or
their help, somehow, but it's damned hard to lie here for ever and
have not one of 'em drop in just now and then for a bit of a talk and
a cheering word. That's what gives me the blues! I always was fond of
company; I hated being alone, and it's like hell to lie here day after
day and see no one but a cross landlady and a miserable servant girl.
Lately, I can't bear to be alone with Freddy. He's so damned like his
mother, you know. It brings a lump in my throat. I wouldn't mind so
much if it were only myself. I've had my cake! But it's rough on the
boy!"

"It is rough on the boy, and it is rough on you," Matravers said
kindly. "I wonder you have never thought of sending him to his mother!
She would surely like to have him!"

The man's face grew black.

"Not till I'm dead," he said doggedly. "I don't want him set against
me! He's all I've got! I'm going to keep him for a bit. It ought not
to be so difficult for us to live. If only I could get down to the
city for a few hours!"

"Could not a friend there do some good for you?" Matravers asked.

"Of course he could," Mr. Drage answered eagerly; "but I haven't got
a friend. See here!"

He took a little account book from under his pillow, and with
trembling fingers thrust it before his visitor.

"You see all these amounts. They are all owing to me from those
people--money lent, and one thing and another. There is an envelope
with bills and I O U's. They belong to me, you understand," he said,
with a sudden touch of dignity. "I never failed! My business was
stopped when I was taken ill, but there was enough to pay everybody.
Now some of these amounts have never been collected. If I could see
these people myself, they would pay, or if I could get a friend whom I
could trust! But there isn't a man comes near me!"

"I--am not a business man," Matravers said slowly; "but if you cared
to explain things to me, I would go into the city and see what I could
do."

The man raised himself on his elbow and gazed at his visitor
open-mouthed.

"You mean this!" he cried thickly. "Say it again,--quick! You mean
it!"

"Certainly," Matravers answered. "I will do what I can."

John Drage did not doubt his good fortune for a moment. No one ever
looked into Matravers' face and failed to believe him.

"I--I'll thank you some day," he murmured. "You've done me up! Will
you--shake hands?"

He held out a thin white hand. Matravers took it between his own.

In a few momen