“None! Not the least in the world! Why should I? I scarcely remember the man!”
“Well, if you have nothing against him, would you not perhaps be inclined to help him? The claims of your business are, I know, enormous, and it is of course easy to forget the names and identities of the various persons who have all done their little best to build up the firm,—but Dove’s is really an exceptional case. He was always liked and respected at the works,—many of the men there know him well and speak most highly of him, and I can add my own testimony to that of the others. It seems a pity to let so faithful a servant of the firm die for want of a little first aid——”
“Did he send you to beg of me?” asked McNason with a kind of vicious abruptness.
Mr. Pitt’s pale face flushed a little.
“Certainly not, Mr. McNason! Willie Dove would never beg of any man. He merely told me his case and said: ‘Perhaps Mr. McNason would lend me the money. I would work it all back.’ And to speak the truth, I really thought—yes, sir, I really thought you would be glad to lend it!—even to give it! Two hundred pounds is no more to you than two hundred pence would be to me. But supposing you make it a loan, and have any doubts as to Dove’s ability or willingness to pay it back, I myself will be security for him. I would advance him the money if I had it to spare,—but unfortunately I am rather pressed for cash just now—I also have a large family——”
McNason smiled a smile resembling the death-grin of the fabulous dragon of St. George.
“A mistake, Pitt!—quite a mistake! Large families merely make the world more difficult to live in and money scarcer to get! Money needs to be kept in close quarters—close, very close quarters! It has a habit of running away unless it is imprisoned, Pitt! It runs away much faster than it runs in! Governments know that!—and kings! And when governments and kings find it slipping through their fingers, they come to Me!—to me, Josiah McNason!—and I tell you what it is, Pitt, I’ve enough to do with lending money to Big Persons and taking securities on Big Things without bothering myself concerning Little Commercials! See? I lend to Royalties, Titles and Magnificences of all classes and all nations,—and I’ve done so much lately in this line that I’m short of money myself just now, Pitt!—ha, ha!—I’m short of money!”
Mr. Pitt stared, and was for a moment speechless. He had often thought (taking shame to himself for indulging in such a reflection) that Mr. McNason was certainly a very ugly man, but he had never seen him look uglier than at the present moment. Such a mouthing, wrinkled mask of a face as the firelight now flashed upon was surely not often seen among living humanity. Even the grey-white goatee beard that adorned Josiah’s sharp chin, wagged up and down with its possessor’s silent mirth in a fashion which made its expression abnormally atrocious.
“I’m short of money!” repeated the millionaire, rubbing his hands pleasantly together—“I don’t mind lending this Willie Dove five pounds, as you say he served the firm well a quarter of a century ago,—but two hundred! Now, Mr. Pitt, you’re a sensible man,—a man of business,—and you know that to ask such a sum on loan for a decayed and diseased commercial traveller is absurd! He would never be able to ‘work it back’ as he says. And as for your being his security, I have too much respect for you to allow you to put yourself into such an awkward position. You’d regret it,—you really would, Pitt! Besides, why not let Dove go to one of the Hospitals and take his chance among the young students and general cutters-up of bodies, eh? They’d charge him very little—perhaps nothing—especially if they found his disease complex enough for good ‘practice’!”
Mr. Pitt gave an unconscious gesture of physical repulsion.