"Half a million clean chucked away," said Mr. Stobell.

Mr. Chalk shook his head and, finding that his friends had by no means
exhausted the subject, suddenly bethought himself of an engagement and
left them.

Miss Vickers, who heard the news from Mr. Joseph Tasker, received it with
an amount of amazement highly gratifying to his powers as a narrator.
Her strongly expressed opinion afterwards that he had misunderstood what
he had heard was not so agreeable.

"I suppose I can believe my own ears?" he said, in an injured voice.

"He must have been making fun of them all," said Selina. "He couldn't
have burnt it--he couldn't."

"Why not?" inquired the other, surprised at her vehemence.

Miss Vickers hesitated. "Because it would be such a silly thing to do,"
she said, at last. "Now, tell me what you heard all over again--slow."

Mr. Tasker complied.

"I can't make head or tail of it," said Miss Vickers when he had
finished.

"Seems simple enough to me," said Joseph, staring at her.

"All things seem simple when you don't know them," said Miss Vickers,
vaguely.