Page:Henry Northcote (IA henrynorthcote00snairich).pdf/394

 "My dear old lunatic, what are you talking about?"

"Merely this. Your alternative of the insurance company and the furniture is ingenious but lacking in comprehensiveness. The insurance company would, after the fashion of insurance companies, have insisted on an investigation into the cause of the disaster; they might even have preferred a charge against me to save themselves a few wretched shillings; litigation would almost certainly have ensued—there goes the roof of the hotel!—and litigation which touches myself is the last thing I should be willing to risk."

"All this is very elaborate, North, but it is hardly convincing. Why are you so unwilling to risk litigation when your whole life—and a rather important one I expect—will be bound up in it?"

"The less my name is associated in the public mind with any shady transaction the better for my career."

"A point of honor, North. You always had the reputation at school of being rather nice about it."

"To be frank, it is a point of expedience, my son. Henceforward you will find the notorious 'Cad' Northcote without fear and without stain."

"Why?"

"Why! Because one of these days they will make him a judge."

THE END.