"
"From a business point of view----" I began dryly.
Mr. Parker shook his head.
"Mr. Samuelson's jewels," he complained, "were like his wines, all sparkle
and outside--no body to them. Two thousand pounds indeed! Why, we shall be
lucky if we clear four hundred!" The man's coolness absolutely took me
aback. For a moment I simply stared at him. "He'll be round to see you
this morning, sometime, about my character," Mr. Parker proceeded.
"He has already paid me a visit," I said grimly. "He was round at ten
o'clock this morning."
"You don't say!" Mr. Parker murmured.
He looked at me hopefully. His expression was like nothing else but the
wistful smile of a fat boy expecting good news.
"Oh, of course I told him the usual thing!" I admitted. "I told him you
were a close personal friend; a sort of amateur millionaire; a person of
the highest respectability--everything you ought to be, in fact. He went
away perfectly satisfied and determined to have nothing to do with the
guest theory."
Mr. Parker patted me on the shoulder.
"My boy," he said, "I knew I could rely on you."
"I propose," I continued, elaborating upon the scheme that had come into
my head on the way, "to do more than this for you.
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