' Ah, come in, come in,' he said. ' I was waiting for you. No, you are not late.'
He rose.
' Bertie, never be a very rich man,' he said. ' It is a damnable slavery. You can't stop; you have to go on. You can't rest; you are in the mill, and the mill keeps on turning.'
He stood silent a moment, then pulled himself together.
' I hope nobody overheard,' he said. ' They would think I was mad. Now and then, just now and then, I get like that, and then I would give all I have to get somebody to press out the wrinkles in my brain, and let it rest. I should be quite content to be poor, if I could forget all this fever in which my life has been spent. I might even do something as an art critic. There, it's all over. Sit down. There are the cigars by you.
' Now you talked to me straight enough once before,' he went on, ' and told me, I believe, the exact truth. I wanted you to start with Amelie with a clean sheet in that direction, and I want you to have a clean sheet in another. I want you to pay off all your debts. All, mind; don't come to me with more afterwards. I know it's difficult to state the whole. Please try to do so. Take time.'
Bertie sat quite still a moment, with a huge up-leap of relief in his mind.
' I can't tell you accurately,' he said. ' But I am afraid they are rather large.'
' Well, a million pounds,' suggested Mr. Palmer dryly.
Bertie laughed; already he could laugh.
' No, not quite,' he said. ' But between ten thousand and twenty. About twelve I should say.'
' Confiding people, English tradesmen,' remarked Mr. Palmer. ' Been going to the Jews?'
' No.'
' Well, don't. My house doesn't charge so high. Now,
