“You said just now to that cad of a fellow that you did not know——”
“Whether I should be able to repay the money. Yes. What of it?”
“That is a startling statement——”
“Not so very. But in the first place I am not at all sure that I shall be held responsible. Look here, Brose——”
They stopped at the foot of the steps leading to the President's room.
“Look here. Supposing there had been a fire, and the money had been burned. I should not have been told to restore it, should I?”
“I do not know that you would be held.”
“Now if one undertakes to hold money temporarily for others, and takes ordinary precautions for safe-keeping, do you think he would be held responsible for it if it were stolen?”
“But the safer plan would have been——”
“Am I held to take the safer plan? Of course, I regret that I did not take the safer plan, as you suggested, but am I held to have taken the safer plan? Wasn't the ordinary precaution sufficient? The door of that room was locked, the drawer of the table was