Uneasy Money

Avenue-a large young man in excellent condition, with a pleasant, good-humoured, brown, clean-cut face. He paid no attention to the stream of humanity that flowed past

the Palace Theatre. It was his habit to pass the time in mental golf when Claire Fenwick was late in keeping her appointments with him. On one occasion she had kept him waitin

a strange welter of collar-studs, shoe-laces, rubber rings, buttonhooks, and dying roosters. For some minutes he had been eyeing his lordship appraisingly from the edge of the kerb, and now,

Dawlish. There was something about him, some atm

t is unsafe for a man of yielding disposition to stand still, and the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Piccadilly Circus is one of them. Scrubby, impecunious men drift to and fro there, waiting for the gods to provide something easy; and the prudent man, conscious of the possession of loose change, whizzes through the danger zone at his best speed, 'like one that on a lonesome road

ll. All Lord Dawlish's friends called him Bill, and he had a catholic list of them, ranging from men whose names were in 'Debrett' to men whose

being a little slow in returning from the middle distance-for it was not a matter to be decided carelessly and without thought, this problem of

e said, 'but you'd wa

didn't catch

time, with increased pathos, for constant repe

arving c

v'nor, so

et much time for golf

sympath

an, mournfully inflating a dying rooste

to be troubling the poor fellow with the studs a great deal, so, realizing that tas

makes it rather rotten, doesn't it?

'nor,' he advised. 'Cause

the strange fowl w

d, with a sl

tuation had the appearanc

by bad luck to be stocked up with just the sort of things I wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch with. I can't stand rubber rings, never could. I'm not really keen on buttonhooks. An

ess yer,

yours some bread-I expect you can get a lot of brea

deal Lord Dawlish turned, the movement bringi

be using the same route had almost dislocated their necks looking after her. She was a strikingly handsome girl. She was tall and willowy. Her eyes, shaded by her hat, were large and grey. Her nose was small and straight, her mouth

the father of the family his shilling, and he was afraid that Claire had seen him doing it. For Claire, dear girl, was apt to be unreasonable about these little generosities of his. He cast a furtive glance behind

ord Dawlish, with a sort of shee

ud merchant, as, grasping his w

on't you know. Squads of children at home demanding bread. Didn't

gone into a p

to telephone or

u wouldn't let all London sponge on you like this. I keep telling you not to. I shoul

not a rich man. Indeed, with the single exception of the Earl of Wetherby, whose finances were so irregular

zy disregard for the preservation of the pence was a family trait. Bill was at Cambridge when his predecessor in the title, his Uncle Philip, was performing the concluding exercises of the dissipation of the Dawlish doubloo

certain of the numerous circles in which he moved, were the inevitable concomitant of popularity, he was satisfied. And this modest ambition had been realized for him by a group of what he was accustomed to refer to as decent old bucks, who had installed him as secretary of that aristocratic and exclusive club,

t up from the cradle to look on four hundred pounds a year as small change to be disposed of in tips and cab fares. That in itself would have been enough to sow doubts in Bill's mind as to whether he had really got all the money that a reasonable man needed; and

r they had seated themselves at their table. It was a relief to Bill when the arrival of the wa

een doing this m

e Maginnis at

O

m asking me to call.

s part in the nu

t's

hy

isn't it? What I mean is, l

ouring

all. He thought rather highly of the number one companies tha

ad of when the tour's half over. They are at Southampton this week

like Por

hy

ood links

I don't

rgetting. Still, it's

e. I loathe it. I've

don't

do you

of the days on which Claire was not so sweet-tempered as on some other days. It crossed his mind that of late these irrit

fle dull for one with a taste for the luxuries of life, Claire had gone on the stage. By birth she belonged to a class of which the female members are seldom called upon to earn money at all, and that was one count of her grievance against Fate. Another was that she had not done as well on the stage as she had expected to do. When she became engaged to Bill she had reached a point where she could obtain without difficulty good parts in the touring companies of London successes, but beyond that it seemed it was impossible for her to soa

t by saying, 'Oh, I don't know,' condoned the peevishness. He then

be rather a jar for old friend Maginnis? Won't he be apt to foam

good? He never gives me a chance in London. I'm sic

aid Lord Dawlish,

the heat.

at have

. Why can't you exert your

ious route, but with unfailing precision, the

uch chance of our ever getting married as of-I can't think of an

my dea

talk to me as if yo

you goin

arried this afternoon i

on four hundred a year and spend the rest of my life in a pokey l

y bumped my salary up a bit, and the old boy nearly strangled himself trying to suck down Scotch and laugh at the same time. I give you my word, he nearly expired on the smoking-room floor. When he came to he said that

ed by the men in your club if

o you

if you had liked. They wouldn't have dreamed of blackballing any one proposed by a popular

mean my darling-Breit

rst bounder

don. He would have done anything for you

lted

him an admission

unday. Amazing how these rich Johnnies love getting something for not

all sorts of money. Why, a single tip from

Brown's, it's awfully decent of them and all that, but I couldn't take advantage

nonse

ght him that none of the arguments which seemed so conclusive to him-to wit, that the financier had on two occasions only just escaped imprisonment for fraud, and, what was worse, made a noise when he drank

litting back to the remark which she had interrupted; 'well, there's

ordship, protestingly. 'How on eart

yourself that you spent hours helping him

with a man, you can't spend your time dodging him. And this man had a slice that fascinated me. I felt at the time that it was my mission in life to cure him,

on a month or two afterwards,

caught his eye, and he nodded and passed on. I don't see how I could construe tha

way to help you; but probably if you had

that. He wasn't the sort of man you could get things out of. He didn't even tip the caddie. Bes

complain of in you. Y

r night. He was telling me about America. There's a lot of money to be made over there, you k

might happen to drop into something. Gates was telling me ab

e all you want in London if you will only try. It isn't as if you had no chances. You have more chances tha

e, and I should probably run up against some wildcat company. I can't say I like the directorship wheeze much. It's the idea

bit h

must have lots of money. Now I have to keep explaining to them that the reason we don't get married is that we can't afford to. I'm almost as badly off as poor Polly Davis

w, but you always have some silly objection. Why couldn't you, for

nothing to what the poor devils wh

ould have given you any commission you asked. You know j

th sowing these horrors about London. I couldn't go about the place sticking my pals with a car

bought a car that wasn't any good. Why sho

ng the wrong thing, and now he put the coping-stone on his misdeeds. Of all t

'noblesse oblige, do

ot speak. Then she looked

oing,' she s

en't had you

want an

the matt

r. I have to go home

on this a

by the fact that he had not yet paid the bill. The production and settling of this

ift feet of love, he reache