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180 sufferer imagines himself possessed of wealth untold, or power unlimited. It was while the banker was in this diseased frame of mind that I hoped to feather my nest at his expense. Without going into further detail at this point, I may say that on my return to London, I managed to extract no less than five thousand pounds from him in the course of the next two months. I so contrived that not even his subordinates, or clerks at the bank, had any definite proof that this money had been given to me.

I received it all in notes, and as far as anybody knew, these notes had been used by the head of the firm himself.

Of course, if suspicion arose they could be traced, but suspicion should not be aroused if I could help it. I say nobody knew it, and I went my way, happy in that belief, until the day on which he paid me the last five hundred.

On that particular morning I had cause to go out suddenly into the little ante-room adjoining his office in the bank, in which Fernie, an old servant, waited all day to attend to the personal wants of his master.

There was a solid party-wall between the two rooms, but running along the top of this