I was a poor boy then, as you know, and to a poor boy they were a little fortune.

But, like you, I have done well since, and you must let me pay them back.

You can put them to some other poor boy's use." I took out my purse.
He watched me as I laid my purse upon the table and opened it, and he watched me as I separated two one-pound notes from its contents.

They were clean and new, and I spread them out and handed them over to him.

Still watching me, he laid them one upon the other, folded them long-wise, gave them a twist, set fire to them at the lamp, and dropped the ashes into the tray.
"May I make so bold," he said then, with a smile that was like a frown, and with a frown that was like a smile, "as ask you how you have done well, since you and me was out on them lone shivering marshes ?" "How ?" "Ah!" He emptied his glass, got up, and stood at the side of the fire, with his heavy brown hand on the mantel-shelf.