"What has been due, old fellow?"
"Why, what she intends to give us."
Thus securely did Cecil rely upon that source of aid.
"Meanwhile," he added, "I am deucedly hard up, and if you have a few pounds——"
"Make it shillings, Cis, and it will be quite as impossible. Egad! it is rather a queer sensation for one who has been so long a borrower, to be looked upon in the light of a possible lender!"
"Say no more, Frank; you would do it if you could, I am sure."
"Damn my whiskers! if you are sure of it, I'm not. I doubt whether I could lend. I don't know the trick of it; I should feel as strange and disreputable as if I were to pay a bill. Perhaps my friendship for you might overcome that—— I don't know—perhaps it might. But it is all speculation, so let us trouble ourselves no more with it. As a matter of practice, judge how feasible it is when I reveal to you the present state of my capital: four shillings and some halfpence in current coin, and eighteen pence invested."
"Invested, Frank! in what, pray?"
"In a bill-stamp: I take care to be provided with that."
Cecil shouted with laughter, exclaiming,—"That's so like you."