t, without doing any harm.
I'll send one of my men down to Grimes, and tell him I can't see him,
till,--let me see," and he looked at one of the bills, "till the
15th."

But this was not exactly what George Vavasor wanted. He was desirous
that the bills should be immediately turned into money, so that the
necessity of forcing payments from Alice, should due provision for
the bills not be made, might fall into other hands than his.

"We can wait till the 15th," said Scruby, as he handed the bits of
paper back to his customer.

"You will want a thousand, you say?" said George.

"A thousand to begin with. Certainly not less."

"Then you had better keep two of them."

"Well--no! I don't see the use of that. You had better collect them
through your own banker, and let me have a cheque on the 15th or
16th."

"How cursed suspicious you are, Scruby."

"No, I ain't. I'm not a bit suspicious. I don't deal in such
articles; that's all!"

"What doubt can there be about such bills as those? Everybody knows
that my cousin has a considerable fortune, altogether at her own
disposal."

"The truth is, Mr Vavasor, that bills with ladies' names on
them,--ladies who are no way connected with business,--ain't just the
paper that people like."

"Nothing on earth can be surer."

"You take them into the City for discount, and see if the bankers
don't tell you the same. They may be done, of course, upon your name.
I say nothing about that."

"I can explain to you the nature of the family arrangement, but I
can't do that to a stranger. However, I don't mind."

"Of course not. The time is so short that it does not signify. Have
them collected through your own bankers, and then, if it don't suit
you to call, send me a cheque for a thousand pounds when the time
is up." Then Mr Scruby turned to some papers on his right hand, as
though the interview had been long enough. Vavasor looked at him
angrily, opening his wound at him and cursing him inwardly. Mr Scruby
went on with his paper, by no means regarding either the wound or the
unspoken curses. Thereupon Vavasor got up and went away without any
word of farewell.

As he walked along Great Marlborough Street, and through those
unalluring streets which surround the Soho district, and so on to
the Strand and his own lodgings, he still continued to think of some
wide scheme of revenge,--of some scheme in which Mr Scruby might be
included. There had appeared something latterly in Mr