The Financiers That night as Easton walked home through the rain he felt very depressed.

It had been a very bad summer for most people and he had not fared better than the rest.

A few weeks with one firm, a few days with another, then out of a job, then on again for a month perhaps, and so on.
William Easton was a man of medium height, about twenty-three years old, with fair hair and moustache and blue eyes.

He wore a stand-up collar with a coloured tie and his clothes, though shabby, were clean and neat.
He was married: his wife was a young woman whose acquaintance he had made when he happened to be employed with others painting the outside of the house where she was a general servant.

They had 'walked out' for about fifteen months.