“Think not?”
“I’m sure not. Miss Carr wants to advance some money to help some one.”
“Well, then, let her do it.”
“She cannot well do it herself, and she asked me if I knew anyone, and I named you.”
“Hang your impudence, then,” he said, taking snuff fiercely. “You know I was fool enough to advance money to Lister, so you recommend me as an easy one to do it again.”
“No, no, Mr Jabez; you don’t understand me,” I said, laughing. “Miss Carr wishes to find the money, but she wants it to seem as if it came through you.”
“Oh!”
Here he refreshed himself with his snuff, looking at me suspiciously the while.
“Look here, young Grace,” he said; “I’m not fond of doing things in the dark; so, as we are old friends, suppose you make a clean breast of what all this means. You know, I suppose?”
“Yes, I know everything,” I replied.