I will write to all our clients and creditors, assemble them, lay the whole matter before them, read them the letter and put myself absolutely in their hands." "That's it, boy--yard-arm to yard-arm, and have it over." "I must go at once." He put on his top-coat and his hat.

"But I have ten minutes yet before I can catch a train.

There is one little thing which I must do before I start." He had caught sight through the long glass folding door of the gleam of a white blouse and a straw hat in the tennis ground.

Clara used often to meet him there of a morning to say a few words before he hurried away into the City.

He walked out now with the quick, firm step of a man who has taken a momentous resolution, but his face was haggard and his lips pale.
"Clara," said he, as she came towards him with words of greeting, "I am sorry to bring ill news to you, but things have gone wrong in the City, and--and I think that I ought to release you from your engagement." Clara stared at him with her great questioning dark eyes, and her face became as pale as his.
"How can the City affect you and me, Harold ?" "It is dishonor.