"Doesn't he know you've come?"
"No," said Alice, "we shan't tell him till we've got the partnership, because his own business worries him a good deal and we don't want to bother him with ours till it's settled, and then we shall give him half our share."
The old gentleman took off his spectacles and rumpled his hair with his hands, then he said, "Then what did you come for?"
"We saw your advertisement," Dicky said, "and we want a hundred pounds on our note of hand, and my sister came so that there should be both kinds of us; and we want it to buy a partnership with in the lucrative business for sale of useful patent. No personal attendance necessary."
"I don't think I quite follow you," said the G. B. "But one thing I should like settled before entering more fully into the matter: why did you call me Generous Benefactor?"
"Well, you see," said Alice, smiling at him to show she wasn't frightened, though I know really she was, awfully, "we thought it was so very kind of you to try to find out the poor people who want money and to help them and lend them your money."
"Hum!" said the G. B. "Sit down."
He cleared the clocks and vases and candle-
