chauffeur. Your number must have been taken half-a-dozen times since we left the bank."
"Oh, that's all right! I think you and Mr. Mackeller are acquainted?"
"I have met him." Corbitt's strong jaws snapped like a steel trap.
"I have brought you together to suggest a compromise."
"To speak quite frankly, my lord"
"Sit down, Alexander, and drop the 'my lord'; then speak as frankly as you like."
"I expected this gentleman would make an appeal to you," continued Corbitt. "That is why I asked that my option should run for a month. Even you cannot interfere with it until twenty-eight days are past. A writ has already been issued. The Surrey and Southern Counties Bank is insolvent."
"You are, then, determined to smash it?" enquired Stranleigh.
"Quite."
"Help yourself to a peach, Corbitt. They are really first-rate."
Corbitt took one. Mackeller had risen once more, in spite of his lordship's look of protest.
"Lord Stranleigh, I beg you to do me the justice of acknowledging that I made no appeal to you."
