have some
say in this matter, I have."

"You have--and how, pray?"

"Well, I'll give it you, and straight, too."

"Go on, then."

"Well, you were to have taken a benefit last night, weren't you?"

"I'm listening."

"An' you didn't, did you?"

"Well, no--not exactly a--benefit," replied Fogg slowly, with a sickly
smile.

"And why didn't you?"

"Well, you are aware of the reason as well as I," Fogg answered,
slightly irritated; "because I didn't have the necessary funds to carry
out my plans, therefore----"

"Rubbish and stuff!" retorted Handy contemptuously. "You always get
things mixed."

"What do you mean?" inquired the mystified Fogg, looking more perplexed
than ever. "I do not quite understand you!"

"No, I didn't expect you would. Not be able to give a show without
funds! Fiddlesticks! You make me tired. Darn it! Any one could do the
turn with funds, and if you had the funds you wouldn't need a
benefit--unless, indeed, you needed them to take a pleasure trip to
Europe or to buy an automobile. But the man who can pull off a venture
of that kind I regard as a financier; a man to be respected; a man of
mettle--I mean the kind of mettle that's next door to genius, so to
speak. By the way, old man, how do you spell that mettle--mettle or
metal?"

"I would spell it B-R-A-S-S."

For a moment, Handy was completely put out, then extending his hand, he
said: "Fogg, you may not know it, but you're a humorist. That wasn't
half bad, as we say in England. I was never there, but it goes, all the
same."

Fogg smiled, but Handy looked serious. He was in a troubled state of
mind on account of Fogg's expressed determination to leave the house. He
remembered all too vividly that he had been chief engineer of Fogg's
escapade of the preceding night. He had to economize on truth; originate
a fit, burst a blood-vessel, and carry out several minor details to make
the undertaking thoroughly convincing. These, of course, he was willing
to father, and, for that matter, felt a certain pride in their
performance, when he remembered they resulted in relieving the troubles
of a friend. But he was hurt when he came to reflect that the friend for
whom he had undertaken so much had so little regard for the fitness of
things and embarrassments of the situation as to venture forth the
following day. It was too much for his sensibilities.

"The idea, Fogg, of showing yourself in public to-day, or to-morrow, or
even the next day,