nse qualified to be a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants. The notion that an excess of prosperity may bring ruin had
never presented itself to him, until one day he discovered that out of
over two thousand pounds there remained less than six hundred to his
credit at the bank. This was at the stage of the Thrift Club when the
founder of the Thrift Club was bound under the rules to give credit.
When the original lady member had paid in her two pounds or so, she was
entitled to spend four pounds or so at shops. She did spend four pounds
or so at shops. And Denry had to pay the shops. He was thus temporarily
nearly two pounds out of pocket, and he had to collect that sum by
trifling instalments. Multiply this case by five hundred, and you will
understand the drain on Denry's capital. Multiply it by a thousand, and
you will understand the very serious peril which overhung Denry.
Multiply it by fifteen hundred and you will understand that Denry had
been culpably silly to inaugurate a mighty scheme like the Universal
Thrift Club on a paltry capital of two thousand pounds. He had. In his
simplicity he had regarded two thousand pounds as boundless wealth.

Although new subscriptions poured in, the drain grew more distressing.
Yet he could not persuade himself to refuse new members. He stiffened
his rules, and compelled members to pay at his office instead of on
their own doorsteps; he instituted fines for irregularity. But nothing
could stop the progress of the Universal Thrift Club. And disaster
approached. Denry felt as though he were being pushed nearer and nearer
to the edge of a precipice by a tremendous multitude of people. At
length, very much against his inclination, he put up a card in his
window that no new members could be accepted until further notice,
pending the acquisition of larger offices and other arrangements. For
the shrewd, it was a confession of failure, and he knew it.

Then the rumour began to form, and to thicken, and to spread, that
Denry's famous Universal Thrift Club was unsound at the core, and that
the teeth of those who had bitten the apple would be set on edge.

And Denry saw that something great, something decisive, must be done and
done with rapidity.

II

His thoughts turned to the Countess of Chell. The original attempt to
engage her moral support in aid of the Thrift Club had ended in a
dangerous fiasco. Denry had been beaten by circumstances. And though he
had emerged fr