"I can't wait any longer, Mr. Vernon," was the quick rejoinder. "You promised to settle to-day."
"Yes, but my banker disappointed me, and----"
"Then you cannot pay?"
"No."
"Then I am ordered by the owner of the building to serve you with a notice to quit," said Mr. Brown quietly.
At this Frederic Vernon was thunderstruck. He, one of the leading society lights of the city, served with a notice to quit his bachelor apartments! It was preposterous, scandalous!
"Mr. Brown, do you know who I am?" he demanded, drawing himself up to his full height.
"Certainly. Mr. Frederic Vernon."
"Exactly, sir, and a member of one of our first families, sir."
"I can't help that, sir. The owner of this building expects his money from the first family tenants as well as from the others."