"Well, I'm blessed!" I said. "For a lover I think you're about the most cold-blooded cynic I ever struck. What are you going to wish next?"

"I must have some money," Bruce said thoughtfully.

"You must," I agreed, "plenty! Eight hundred a year won't go far with Cynthia, to say nothing of the others."

"What about a billion in Consols?" suggested Bruce.

I shook my head.

"Too much," I said. "Think what The Clarion and Reynolds's would say about it! You'd have no peace."

"I know," exclaimed Bruce suddenly. "I'll wish that I had as much money as John P. Fox, the American Rubber King."

"That ought to see you through all right," I remarked approvingly. "The papers say he is worth six millions."

Bruce again held up the Nadir Bandar.

"I wish," said he, "that I had as much money as John P. Fox, the American Rubber King."