this answer that seemed to prejudge his proposition.
Nevertheless, he resumed with an effort--"I saw your advertisement in
the paper." The usurer did not even nod in answer to this prelude. He
sat bolt upright in his chair, awaiting further information. "I am, as
you will see by these papers, entitled to some property in reversion."

The usurer stretched out his hand for the papers, which he looked over
carefully with the same implacable tranquillity, while his visitor
entered into explanations as to their substance.

Once only the money-lender peered over the top of a document he was
scanning, and said, gruffly: "Your name, sir, is Bernard West?"

"It is," replied the stranger, mechanically taking up a newspaper, in
which the first thing which caught his eye was the advertisement alluded
to, which ran thus:--"_Money_ to any amount advanced immediately on
every description of security, real or personal. Apply between the hours
of ten and five to Mr. John Brace, ---- street, Soho-square."

After a brief interval of silence, the usurer methodically rearranged
the papers, and returned them to the stranger. "They are of no use," he
said, "no use whatever: the reversion is merely contingent. You have no
available security to offer?"

"Could you not advance something upon these expectations--not even a
small sum?"

"Not a farthing," said the money-lender.

"Is there no way of raising fifty--thirty--even twenty pounds?" said the
stranger, anxiously, and with the tenacity of a drowning man grasping at
a straw.

"There is a way," said the usurer, carelessly. West in his turn was
silent, awaiting the explanation of his companion. "On personal
security," continued the latter with a sinister impatience, beginning to
arrange his writing materials for a letter.

"I will give any discount," said the young man, eagerly. "My prospects
are good: I can--"

"Get a friend to be security for the payment of the interest?"

"Of the interest and principal, you mean?"

"Of the interest only--and the life insurance," added the usurer, with a
slight peculiarity of intonation that might have escaped the notice of
one whose nerves were less exalted in their sensitive power than those
of his visitor's.

"And what sum can I borrow on these terms?" said West, gloomily.

"A hundred pounds: more if you require it. In fact, any amount, if your
security be good."

"The interest will doubtless be high?"

"Not at all: four or five per cen