and you would be relieved of all your present risks.'

'All my present risks?'

'You have risks, Mr. Hugo, because your business has increased so
rapidly that your income is out of all proportion to your capital, which
consists almost solely of buildings which you could not sell at anything
like their cost price in open market, and of goodwill. Now, I ask you,
what is goodwill? What _is_ it? Under our scheme you would at once
become a millionaire in actual fact.'

'Decidedly an inviting prospect,' said Hugo.

He walked about the room.

'Then I may take it that you are at any rate prepared to negotiate?' the
lawyer ventured, staring at the fountain.

'Mr. Polycarp,' answered Hugo, 'I must first give you a little
information and ask you a few questions.'

'Certainly.'

Hugo halted in front of Polycarp, close to him, and, lighting a cigar,
gazed down at the frigid lawyer.

'Till the age of twenty-eight,' he began, 'I had no object in life. I
was educated at Oxford. I narrowly escaped the legal profession. I had a
near shave of the Church. I wasted years in aimless travel, waiting for
destiny to turn up. I was conscious of no gift except a power for