'Are you the G. B.?'

'The _what_?' said the little old gentleman.

'The G. B.,' said H. O., and I winked at him to shut up, but he didn't
see me, and the G. B. did. He waved his hand at _me_ to shut up, so I
had to, and H. O. went on--'It stands for Generous Benefactor.'

The old gentleman frowned. Then he said, 'Your Father sent you here, I
suppose?'

'No he didn't,' said Dicky. 'Why did you think so?'

The old gentleman held out the card, and I explained that we took that
because Father's name happens to be the same as Dicky's.

'Doesn't he know you've come?'

'No,' said Alice, 'we shan't tell him till we've got the partnership,
because his own business worries him a good deal and we don't want to
bother him with ours till it's settled, and then we shall give him half
our share.'

The old gentleman took off his spectacles and rumpled his hair with his
hands, then he said, 'Then what _did_ you come for?'

'We saw your advertisement,' Dicky said, 'and we want a hundred pounds
on our note of hand, and my sister came so that there should be both
kinds of us; and we want it to buy a partnership with in the lucrative
business for sale of useful patent. No personal attendance necessary.'

'I don't think I quite follow you,' said the G. B. 'But one thing I
should like settled before entering more fully into the matter: why did
you call me Generous Benefactor?'

'Well, you see,' said Alice, smiling at him to show she wasn't
frightened, though I know really she was, awfully, 'we thought it was so
_very_ kind of you to try to find out the poor people who want money and
to help them and lend them your money.'

'Hum!' said the G. B. 'Sit down.'

He cleared the clocks and vases and candlesticks off some of the chairs,
and we sat down. The chairs were velvety, with gilt legs. It was like a
king's palace.

'Now,' he said, 'you ought to be at school, instead of thinking about
money. Why aren't you?'

We told him that we should go to school again when Father could manage
it, but meantime we wanted to do something to restore the fallen
fortunes of the House of Bastable. And we said we thought the lucrative
patent would be a very good thing. He asked a lot of questions, and we
told him everything we didn't think Father would mind our telling, and
at last he said--

'You wish to borrow money. When will you repay it?'

'As soon as we've got it, of course,' Dicky said.

Then the G. B. said to Oswald, 'You seem the e