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186 ceive the Honourable John Hazel at the present moment.

"Has he found someone, then, to be President of the company in place of Lord Stranleigh?"

The secretary smiled.

"I am not at liberty to say anything further than that Mr. Isaacstein has abandoned all thought of Lord Stranleigh's co-operation."

As the Honourable John still hesitated—he was in desperate straits, and it was useless to tell the secretary that—the secretary was obliging enough to say:

"Mr. Isaacstein will not be at his house until midnight. Don't say I suggested it, but if I were you I should telephone to him, say between half-past eleven and twelve. It is possible he might see you for a short time before he goes to bed, but there is not the slightest use of calling upon him in the City for the next fortnight or three weeks."

With this Hazel was forced to content himself, and he turned away from Isaacstein's busy office a very dejected man. At the Corinthian he spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing bridge, and, contrary to the popular belief regarding a man down on his luck, he won a considerable sum of money, but not nearly enough for the necessity that held him in its grip.

"Hello!" cried one of the losers, pushing back