"No," answered Barnabas, calmly serious of eye, "no, I'm not jesting; and to prove it, here is an advance of wages." And he dropped two guineas into the man's open palm.
The man stared down at the coins in his hand, then rose abruptly to his feet and turned away, and when he spoke again his voice was hoarse.
"Sir," said he, jerkily, "for such trust I would thank you, only words are too poor. But if, as I think, it is your desire to enter the World of Fashion, it becomes my duty, as an honest man, to tell you that all your efforts, all your money, would be unavailing, even though you had been introduced by Barrymore, or Hanger, or Vibart, or Brummell himself."
"Ah," said Barnabas, "and why?"
"Because you have made a fatal beginning."
"How?"
"By knocking down the Prince's friend and favorite—Sir Mortimer
Carnaby."
CHAPTER XVII
IN WHICH BARNABAS PARTS COMPANY WITH THE PERSON OF QUALITY
For a long moment the two remained silent, each staring at the other, Barnabas still seated in the ditch and the man standing before him, with the coins clutched in his hand.