of spending a late January day.

Then there was no doubt that it was an interesting little community,
that of the New Asiatic Bank. The curiously amateurish nature of the
institution lent a certain air of light-heartedness to the place. It
was not like one of those banks whose London office is their main
office, where stern business is everything and a man becomes a mere
machine for getting through a certain amount of routine work. The
employees of the New Asiatic Bank, having plenty of time on their
hands, were able to retain their individuality. They had leisure to
think of other things besides their work. Indeed, they had so much
leisure that it is a wonder they thought of their work at all.

The place was full of quaint characters. There was West, who had been
requested to leave Haileybury owing to his habit of borrowing horses
and attending meets in the neighbourhood, the same being always out of
bounds and necessitating a complete disregard of the rules respecting
evening chapel and lock-up. He was a small, dried-up youth, with black
hair plastered down on his head. He went about his duties in a costume
which suggested the sportsman of the comic papers.

There was also Hignett, who added to the meagre salary allowed him by
the bank by singing comic songs at the minor music halls. He confided
to Mike his intention of leaving the bank as soon as he had made a
name, and taking seriously to the business. He told him that he had
knocked them at the Bedford the week before, and in support of the
statement showed him a cutting from the Era, in which the writer said
that 'Other acceptable turns were the Bounding Zouaves, Steingruber's
Dogs, and Arthur Hignett.' Mike wished him luck.