"Oh, but I couldn't do that, now!" he said eagerly. "You see I promised
I'd do it for five."

Zillah gave him a quick glance.

"Don't you be silly!" she said. "When anybody like Melky offers you five
pounds for anything, ask them double. They'll give it. You don't know much
about money matters, do you?"

Lauriston laughed, and gaining confidence, gave the girl a knowing look.

"Not much," he admitted, "else I wouldn't have had to do that bit of
business with you the other day."

"Oh--that!" she said indifferently. "That's nothing. You'd be astonished
if you knew what sort of people just have to run round to us, now and
then--I could tell you some secrets! But--I guessed you weren't very well
up in money matters, all the same. Writing people seldom are."

"I suppose you are?" suggested Lauriston.

"I've been mixed up in them all my life, more or less," she answered.
"Couldn't help being, with my surroundings. You won't think me inquisitive
if I ask you something? Were you--hard up--when you came round the other
night?"

"Hard up's a mild term," replied Lauriston, frankly. "I hadn't a penny!"

"Excepting a gold watch worth twelve or fifteen pounds," remarked Zillah,