“I want five thousand five hundred pounds by this day week, and I’ve come to you to help me to raise it.”
“In other words, you want to borrow five thousand five hundred pounds?”
“Exactly so.”
“And what kind of security are you prepared to offer for a loan of such magnitude?”
“What security! Why, my I.O.U., of course.”
Mr. Cope took a pinch of snuff slowly and deliberately before he spoke again. “I am afraid the document in question could hardly be looked upon as a negotiable security.”
“And who the deuce wanted it to be considered as a negotiable security?” burst out the Squire. “Do you think I want everybody to know my private affairs?”
“Possibly not,” said the banker, quietly. “But, in transactions of this nature, it is a matter of simple business that the person who advances the money should have some equivalent security in return.”
“And is not my I.O.U. a good and equivalent security as between friend and friend?”
“Oh if you are going to put the case in that way, it becomes a different kind of transaction entirely,” said the banker.