"My dear Vindt, I should be sorry to lose an old friend like you."
"Lose an old friend?"
"Why, yes. You see, I've had some experience of backing bills. Take a couple of instances out of many. You remember young Lieberg? Smart, well-got-up young fellow, with a taste for the good things of life, but a trifle thin in the wearing parts. I backed a bill for him, and we were first-rate friends. At the first renewal I had to remind him, with all respect, of the paper's existence, and he was mortally offended—although I offered to lend him interest and payment. And in the end I had to pay up myself. Well, I thought after that he'd look on me as his best friend. Whereas now, when I meet him in the street, he cuts me dead. That's what you get for it!
"Then there was Kautz, the shipowner. He went bankrupt, as you know, and let me in for £800, but in spite of that I signed, and helped him to come to an arrangement. A very nice little piece of business it turned out for him, for the year after he was a richer man than he'd ever been before, and he gave a thundering big party, invited all the town—excepting me!"
"My dear Holm, if it ever should happen to me, I'd take care you were invited too."
"Very good of you, I'm sure. But I'll tell you another little story. Consul Pram was a big man, with a big position, as you know, but a jovial soul, and easy to get on with. I've a liking for men of that sort. Well, it was in 1875, when things were at their worst all round, for shipping and trade and everything else we get our living by. I don't believe there was a business in the town that wasn't eternally worried about how things were to turn out.
"Then one day Pram came up to me. 'Puh,' said he, 'it's hot,' and sat down, puffing. It was midsummer and pretty warm.
"'You're right there,' said I, putting away my balance-sheet. I'd just tacked £200 on to the valuation of the premises to make it come out.
"'Times are pretty bad,' said he.
"'Not for a nabob like you, surely,' said I, feeling a bit anxious all the same. There was a matter of £150 between us. And I'd no idea where to rake up any funds beyond.