The Real Charlotte. 381 



his head, his shoulders, and even his moustache drooping 

 limply, and his hands nervously twisting his ash plant. 



" That's a bad business," said Charlotte reflectively, and 

 was silent for a moment, while Lambert realised the satis- 

 faction of dealing with an intelligence that could take in 

 such a situation instantaneously, without alarm or even sur- 

 prise. 



" Is he going to give you the sack ? " she asked. 



" I don't know yet. He didn't say anything definite." 



Lambert found the question hard to bear, but he endured 

 it for the sake of the chance it gave him to lead up to the 

 main point of the interview. " If I could have that four 

 hundred placed to his credit before I see him next, I believe 

 there'd be an end of it. Not that I'd stay with him," he 

 went on, trying to bluster, " or with any man that treated 

 me this kind of way, going behind my back to look at the 

 accounts." 



" Is that the way he found you out ? " asked Charlotte, 

 taking up the lid of the packing-case and twisting a nail out 

 of it with her hammer " He must be smarter than you took 

 him for." 



" Someone must have put him up to it," said Lambert, 

 " someone who'd got at the books. It beats me to make it 

 out. But what's the good of thinking of that ? The thing 

 that's setting me mad is to know how to pay him." He 

 waited to see if Charlotte would speak, but she was occu- 

 pied in straightening the nail against the wall with her 

 hammer, and he went on with a dry throat. " I'm going to 

 sell all my horses, Charlotte, and I daresay I can raise some 

 money on the furniture ; but it's no easy job to raise money 

 in such a hurry as this, and if I'm to be saved from being 

 disgraced, I ought to have it at once to stop his mouth. I 

 believe if I could pay him at once he wouldn't have spunk 

 enough to go any further with the thing." He waited again, 

 but the friend of his youth continued silent. " Charlotte, 

 no man ever had a better friend, through thick and thin, 

 than I've had in you. There's no other person living that 

 I'd put myself under an obligation to but yourself. Char- 

 lotte, for the sake of all that's ever been between us, would 

 you lend me the money ? " 



Her face was hidden from him as she knelt, and he 

 stooped and placed a clinging, affectionate hand upon her 



