"Yes, he'd better drive," he said to himself, "it would look better." He lifted a finger, and a hansom rattled along, and drew up by the kerb. He had not expected to find cabs in Sydney. His card-case was handy, and his first letter also.
He might have taken a 'bus or tram. There were plenty passing, and very like Glasgow 'buses they were too; from the John with the ribbons to the cad at the rear. But a hansom certainly looked more aristocratic. Aristocratic? Yes. But were there any aristocrats in Sydney? Was there any real blue blood in the place? He had not answered those questions to his satisfaction, when the hansom stopped so suddenly that he fell forward.
"Wait," he said to the driver haughtily.
"Certainly, sir."
Archie did not observe, however, the grimace the Jehu made to another cabman, as he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb, else he would hardly have been pleased.
There was quite a business air about the office into which the young man ushered himself, but no one took much notice of him. If he had had an older face under that brand-new hat, they might have been more struck with his appearance.
"Ahem! Aw!——" Archie began.
"One minute, sir," said the clerk nearest him. "Fives in forty thousand? Fives in forty are eight—eight thousand."
The clerk advanced pen in mouth.
"Do you come from Jenkins's about those bills?"