Edward now announced his intention of going in to Culbut to call on a Cabinet Minister of advanced Radical views.

"I have great hopes of him," he said. "The poor hate him, because they say he is trying to foist property on to them by removing their taxes one after the other, and piling them on the rich, and that if he goes on in this way much longer he will wreck the Constitution, and that that is really what he wishes to do. They say he is on the side of capital because he has none himself; but, as a matter of fact, he has sprung from the rich, and has a very tender heart for their sufferings; I have often heard him say so. If he will put himself at the head of this movement its success will be assured."

I wished Edward good luck, and when I had seen him safely round the corner set out to find Mr. Hobson's house.

According to Upsidonian ideas, this unfortunate man had certainly been brought to a pass of great misery. He lived in a large and handsome mansion surrounded by some acres of ground, and kept up an imposing establishment.

I was shown into a library very richly furnished, but in far better taste than any of the rooms I had been in on my visits that morning. The effect was somewhat spoiled to my eye by a plain deal-topped table and three or four Windsor chairs, which were mixed up with the rest of the furniture; but tears came into my eyes—or should have done—when I reflected that these were probably the few articles that Mr. Hobson had been able to save from the wreck of his fortunes, and must be very dear to him as reminders of his former simple and happy life. Probably they would have to go soon, for he would not be able to take up room with them which might be filled with more expensive articles.

I was sitting in one of the Windsor chairs when Mr. Hobson came into the room. He was a dejected-looking man of middle age, with refined features and courteous manners, and my heart leapt as I thought of the solace I was about to bring to his over-burdened mind.

"Mr. Hobson," I said, coming at once to the point, "I have heard your sad story, and I have come to offer you some small relief. I am prepared to accept from you the sum of twenty thousand pounds, and I hope that with this assistance you will be able to make a fresh start and get free of your difficulties."

His thin face, already beginning to fill out from the course of high feeding to which he had been brought, flushed eagerly, and his eyes brightened, but sank immediately to their previous unhappy dullness.

"You are very kind, Mr. Howard," he said, "but I am beyond help, I fear. I could not hold out any hope of asking you to repay me. My spirit is broken. Nothing goes right with me. A week ago I might have accepted such relief, and promised to take back the money when times were brighter. But they will never be brighter for me. I could not even use the interest you would pay me for a sum of twenty thousand pounds."

"But I don't want to pay the money back, and I don't want to pay any interest," I assured him. "I am not a money borrower. I have a good deal less than I know what to do with, and nothing will give me greater pleasure than to receive twenty thousand pounds, or even thirty thousand, as a free gift from you. We should keep the transaction entirely to ourselves, and nobody outside need know anything about it at all."

He stared at me in amazement, and then suddenly broke down altogether, and sobbed. "Oh, it is too much!" he cried. "Who are you, that you come as a messenger of hope, when nothing but ruin and darkness seemed to surround me? And why do you do it?"

These were rather awkward questions. "Never mind that," I said. "Everybody has his own axe to grind, and I assure you that you will oblige me as much as I shall oblige you by presenting me with twenty thousand pounds, or even thirty thousand, as I said. Yes, we will make it thirty thousand. You shall write me a cheque at once—to bearer—and I will go straight to the bank and get the money."

When I had overcome his resistance, which wasted a lot of time, he told me that he could not write me a cheque as every penny that came in was reinvested at once, in a mad effort to lose it. "But if you are really serious," he said, "I can give you stocks and shares to the amount you so generously mention, and you can realize on them, or keep them on the chance of going down if you like, which they might do for you but will never do for me."

I was a little disappointed, but it made it easier for me in one way, for I could pretend that I hoped the securities would show a downward movement; and it also made it easier for him. Before we had completed our business, Mr. Hobson had almost persuaded himself that he was doing me a good turn in presenting me with the shares, which he said were bound to lose me a large fortune if I could hold on to them long enough; and I encouraged him to believe that I should hold on to them with that end in view.

It ended in my accepting thirty-five thousand one pound shares in the Mount Lebanon gold mine, the purchase of which had been the chief cause of Mr. Hobson's downfall.

"I bought them at a low figure," he said. "I had been told that the reef would peter out immediately. But I had no sooner bought them than they found another still richer one, and they have been paying forty per cent ever since. They now stand at about eighty shillings, but I do believe that the end is in sight, and they may come down with a run any day. If only I could have stuck to them! But, oh, Mr. Howard, how can I ever thank you? With this burden removed, I shall be able to right myself by degrees. I shall be a new man."

He looked it already. His eyes sparkled, and he held his head erect. But when he suggested calling his wife to thank me for all I had done, I rose and said I must be going.

"Now it is understood that nobody knows about this," I said. "And please don't thank me any more. I know what I am doing, and I assure you I am very pleased to have these Mount Lebanons."

I shook hands with him, and got out of the house as quickly as he and the servants would let me.

I was a little frightened by what I had done. After intending to accept only twenty thousand pounds, I had promised to take over shares worth about seven times that amount, if I realised on them at their present figure; and I knew that I should be considered to have committed an act of sheer lunacy if it came to the ears of Mr. Perry or Edward. Besides, I could hardly get used to the idea all at once that I had suddenly become a rich man, and feared some stroke of fate that would, after all, deprive me of my well-gotten wealth.

I had had to give Herman Eppstein's name as the stockbroker who would arrange the transfer, as he was the only one I knew. There was some risk that he would give me away, but I thought I should be able to impose secrecy on him, as he had not struck me as a man of much independence of character. At any rate, I must risk it. I decided to call on him that afternoon, and now made my way back to Magnolia Hall for luncheon.