nted. "But supposing he only
laughs at me?"

"You will have done your duty," Mr. Weatherley said. "There need be
no mystery about the affair. You can say at once that you are there
as the result of certain telephone messages addressed to me this
morning, and that I should have come myself if it had been possible.
If he chooses to disregard them, it is his affair entirely--not
mine. At the same time, I think that he will go."

"It seems an odd sort of a thing to tell a perfect stranger, sir,"
Arnold remarked.

Mr. Weatherley produced a five-pound note.

"You can't go into those sort of places without money in your
pocket," he continued. "You can account to me for the change later,
but don't spare yourself. Have as good a lunch as you can eat. The
restaurant is the Milan Grill Room on the Strand--the cafe, mind,
not the main restaurant. You know where it is?"

"Quite well, sir, thank you."

Mr. Weatherley looked at his employee curiously.

"Have you ever been there, then?" he inquired.

"Once or twice, sir," Arnold admitted.

"Not on the twenty-eight shillings a week you get from me!"

"Quite true, sir," Arnold assented. "My circumstances were slightly
different at the time."

Mr. Weatherley hesitated. This young man's manner did not invite
confidences. On the other hand, he was genuinely curious about him.

"What made you come into the city, Chetwode?" he inquired. "You
don't seem altogether cut out for it--not that you don't do your
work and all that sort of thing," he went on, hastily. "I haven't a
word of complaint to make, mind. All the same, you certainly seem as
though you might have done a little better for yourself."

"It is the fault of circumstances, sir," Arnold replied. "I am
hoping that before long you will find that I do my work well enough
to give me a better position."

"You are ambitious, then?"

The face of the young man was suddenly grim.

"I mean to get on," he declared. "There were several years of my
life when I used to imagine things. I have quite finished with that.
I realize that there is only one way by means of which a man can
count."

Mr. Weatherley nodded ponderously.

"Well," he said, "let me see that your work is well done, and you
may find promotion is almost as quick in the city as anywhere else.
You had better be off now."

"I trust," Arnold ventured, as he turned toward the door, "that Mrs.
Weatherley is quite well this morning?"

"So far as I know, she is,"