to tell me
how--how 'the big thing' happened. You're always coming to it--and never
getting any further."

Nodding comprehension of the rebuke's justification, he plunged
forthwith into the tale.

"You remember my telling you at the time how I got my Board together.
I'm speaking now of the present Company--after I'd decided to be my own
promoter, and have at least some kind of 'a look-in' for my money. There
wasn't much money left, by the way; it was considerably under three
thousand. But I come to that later. First there was the Board. Here was
where that Lord Plowden that I told you about--the man that came over on
the ship with me--came in. I went to him. I--God! I was desperate--but I
hadn't much of an idea he'd consent. But he did! He listened to me, and
I told him how I'd been robbed, and how the Syndicate would have cut my
throat if I hadn't pulled away,--and he said, 'Why, yes, I'll go on your
Board.' Then I told him more about it, and presently he said he'd get me
another man of title--a sky-scraper of a title too--to be my Chairman.
That's the Marquis of Chaldon, a tremendous diplomatic swell, you know,
Ambassador at Vienna in his time, and Lord Lieutenant and all sorts of
things, but willing to gather in his five hundred a year, all the same."

"Do you mean that YOU pay HIM five hundred pounds a year?" asked the
sister.

"Yes, I've got a live Markiss who works for me at ten quid a week, and a
few extras. The other Directors get three hundred. This Lord Plowden
is one of them--but I'll tell you more about him later on. Then there's
Watkin, he's a small accountant Finsbury way; and Davidson, he's a
wine-merchant who used to belong to a big firm in Dundee, but gets along
the best way he can on a very dicky business here in London, now. And
then there's General Kervick, awfully well-connected old chap, they say,
but I guess he needs all he can get. He's started wearing his fur-coat
already. Well, that's my Board. I couldn't join it, of course, till
after allotment--that's because I'm the vendor, as they call it--but
that hasn't interfered at all with my running the whole show. The Board
doesn't really count, you know. It only does what I want it to do. It's
just a form that costs me seventeen hundred a year, that's all."

"Seventeen hundred a year," she repeated, mechanically.

"Well, then we got out the prospectus, d'ye see. Or first, there were
other things to be done. I saw that a good broker's name coun