“Are you not prejudiced against him, Henry?” The Judge spoke in a deprecating tone.
“I believe, sir, that I estimate him at his real value; and I do most earnestly conjure you to set to work at once to disentangle your affairs if seriously involved with his. If you do not, he will beggar you in your old age, which God forbid!”
“I am far from sure that I can disentangle my affairs,” said the Judge.
“There is nothing like trying, you know.” Wallingford spoke in a tone of encouragement. “And everything may depend on beginning in time. In what way are you involved with him?”
It was some time before Judge Bigelow answered this direct question. He then replied,
“Heavily in the way of endorsements.”
“Of his individual paper?”
“Yes. Also of the paper of his firm.”
“To an extent beyond your ability to pay if there should be failure on their part?”
“Yes; to three times my ability to pay.”