“And pray, sir,” asked the banker, with considerable hauteur, “may I be allowed to ask how you happen to know Sir Harry’s opinion on this important point?”
“Because I had it from Sir Harry’s own lips,” answered Tom, simply. “We were talking together on this very subject, only a few evenings ago, at Lord Tynedale’s.”
Mr. Cope stared at Tom as though he could hardly believe the evidence of his own senses.
“Ah, well,” said the squire, with a chuckle, “if Sir Harry’s opposed to the line, we may make our minds easy that we shall hear very little more about it.”
“I’m not so sure on that point,” answered Tom. “I know for a fact that Bloggs and Hayling, the great engineers, are very much interested in getting the scheme pushed forward, and they are generally credited with knowing pretty well what they are about.”
“As you seem, sir, to be on such intimate terms with Lord Tynedale,” said the banker, with a sneer, “you can, perhaps, tell us the real ins and outs of that strange gambling transaction with which his lordship’s youngest son was so recently mixed up.”
“I cannot tell you the real facts of the case,” answered Tom. “I presume that they are known only to the parties most concerned. But this I can tell you, that I and Mr. Cecil Drake, the young gentleman in question, lived together for three months in Algeria on the most intimate terms; and from my knowledge of him, I feel perfectly sure that his share of the transaction you allude to was that of a strictly honourable man.”
The banker blew his nose violently. This Mr. Bristow was a very strange young man, he said to himself. There was evidently a mistake somewhere. Probably the squire had blundered as usual. In the meantime, it might be just as well to be decently civil to him.
When the evening came to an end, and the banker was putting on his overcoat in the hall, he whispered in the squire’s ear: “I suppose you know that your balance is seventy pounds overdrawn?”
The squire’s face for a moment turned quite ghastly, and he clutched at a chair for support. He recovered himself with a laugh. “I knew it was very low, but I didn’t know it was overdrawn,” he whispered back. “But I know what I’m about, never fear. Just mark my words: before you are two months older, you’ll have a bigger balance to the credit of Titus Culpepper than you’ve ever had yet. Oh yes, I know perfectly well what I’m about.”