"Everything. Suppose my friend were to advance you money upon your expectation of these shares, from your point of view you'd have him between your finger and thumb, and you'd keep him there."
"How do you make that out?"
"The process of extracting compensation from Messrs. McTavish & Brown would be, at best, both a lengthy and a tiresome one, one, moreover, in which not a step could be taken without your active assistance. You'd find that out, and you'd say, 'If you won't let me have so much more I won't move a finger, then you'll lose all that you've advanced already'. And you'd mould your conduct on those lines to the bitter end--my friend might find it a very bitter end. That would not suit him at all."
"You----! I've half a mind to kill you!"
"Keep it at half a mind; many of my friends and clients have found it wiser to stop right there."
"Then do you mean to tell me that I can't get money out of any one--anyhow?"
"Not at all; money can always be obtained upon security. You have personal property--the furniture of this house, jewels, and so on."
"What I might get out of that sort of thing would be gone before I got it."
"Then you might get money out of Messrs. McTavish & Brown."
"You've told me over and over again that it would take no end of a time to do that. I can't wait; I want money--a lot of it!--now."