"I've got it," laughed the other--"but that doesn't say I'm going to
pay it."

"Don't you have to pay your bills? Can we do all this upon credit?"

Oliver laughed again. "You go at me like a prosecuting attorney," he
said. "I'm afraid you'll have to inquire around and learn some
respect for your brother." Then he added, seriously, "You see,
Allan, people like Reggie or myself are in position to bring a great
deal of custom to tradespeople, and so they are willing to go out of
their way to oblige us. And we have commissions of all sorts coming
to us, so it's never any question of cash."

"Oh!" exclaimed the other, opening his eyes, "I see! Is that the way
you make money?"

"It's one of the ways we save it," said Oliver. "It comes to the
same thing."

"Do people know it?"

"Why, of course. Why not?"

"I don't know," said Montague. "It sounds a little queer."

"Nothing of the kind," said Oliver. "Some of the best people in New
York do it. Strangers come to the city, and they want to go to the
right places, and they ask me, and I send them. Or take Robbie
Walling, who keeps up five or six establishments, and spends several
millions a year. He can't see to it all personally--if he did, he'd