“Every security, every deed was in its place, and the bank was never in a more prosperous state.”
“Then of what do you complain?”
“That is what I do not know. All I know, Bayle, is that I am uneasy, and dissatisfied about him. Can you help me?”
“How can I help you?”
“Can you tell me something to set my mind at rest, and make me think that Hallam is a strictly honourable man, so that I can go off again yachting. I cannot exist away from the sea.”
“I am afraid I can tell you nothing, Sir Gordon.”
“Not from friend to friend?”
“I am the trusted friend of the Hallams’. I am free of their house. They have entrusted a great deal of the education of their child to me!”
“Well, tell me this. You know the people. What do they say of Hallam in the town?”
“I have never heard an unkind word respecting him unless from disappointed people, to whom, I suppose from want of confidence in their securities, he has refused loans.”