How do you expect a man
to keep his accounts properly if you----"
Here the Nilghai began to laugh, and Torpenhow joined him.
"Hid a sovereign yesterday! You're no sort of financier. You lent me a fiver
about a month back. Do you remember?" Torpenhow said.
"Yes, of course."
"Do you remember that I paid it you ten days later, and you put it at the
bottom of the tobacco?"
"By Jove, did I? I thought it was in one of my colour-boxes."
"You thought! About a week ago I went into your studio to get some 'baccy and
found it."
"What did you do with it?"
"Took the Nilghai to a theatre and fed him."
"You couldn't feed the Nilghai under twice the money--not though you gave him
Army beef. Well, I suppose I should have found it out sooner or later. What is
there to laugh at?"
"You're a most amazing cuckoo in many directions," said the Nilghai, still
chuckling over the thought of the dinner. "Never mind. We had both been working
very hard, and it was your unearned increment we spent, and as you're only a
loafer it didn't matter."
"That's pleasant--from the man who is bursting with my meat, too. I'll get that
dinner back one of these days. Suppose we go to a theatre now."
"Put our boots on,--and dress,--and wash?" The Nilghai spoke very lazily.
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