Then he exclaimed, ‘Good gracious! It’s been in my pocket all the afternoon.’
He felt in his coat-tail pocket, but it was not there.
Then he felt in all his pockets, and looked upstairs, and under the table, and in his hat, and in his boots, and in all the absurd and impossible places where people imagine a lost article may by miracle be secreted.
He took a cab and went back to the Junior Corinthian, but no cheque-book had been found there.
He bad lost it. There could be no doubt about it now.
Mr. Limpet junior’s light-hearted composure was quite undisturbed. He was sorry, but it was only a cheque-book. What the deuce did it matter? Now if it had been bank-notes it would have been a nuisance.
Mr. Limpet, senior, was cross, but he recovered his equanimity under the soothing influence of Reginald’s unconcern. After all, it was only a cheque-book, of no use to anyone but the owner, and Smith and Co.
CHAPTER XVII.
SMITH AND CO. AT WORK.
The firm of Smith and Co. was not an old-established business.
The gentlemen connected with it had for a long time traded on their own account, but it was only quite recently that their talents had been united for the benefit of the joint-stock enterprise. The founder of Smith and Co. and the principal partner was, as the reader has probably surmised, Mr. Edward Marston.