'If your son had committed a theft, would you not do everything in your
power to counteract the evil he had done?'

'I might, and I might not. Some fathers pay their sons' debts, others do
not. I cannot say what action I should take in a purely imaginary case.'

'Very well; all I have to say is, our option runs out in two or three
days. Twenty thousand pounds will secure the mine for us. I want that
twenty thousand pounds before the option ceases.'

'And do you expect me to pay you twenty thousand pounds for this?'

'Yes, I do.'

Old Mr. Longworth leaned back in his office chair, and looked at the
young man in amazement.

'To think that you, a man of the City, should come to me, another man of
the City, with such an absurd idea in your head, is simply grotesque.'

'Then the name of the Longworths is nothing to you--the good name, I
mean?'

'The good name of the Longworths, my dear sir, is everything to me; but
I fancy it will be able to take care of itself without any assistance
from you.'

There was silence for a few moments. Then Wentworth said, in a voice of
suppressed anguish: