Lauriston laughed, and gaining confidence, gave the girl a knowing look.
"Not much," he admitted, "else I wouldn't have had to do that bit of business with you the other day."
"Ohthat!" she said indifferently. "That's nothing. You'd be astonished if you knew what sort of people just have to run round to us, now and thenI could tell you some secrets! ButI guessed you weren't very well up in money matters, all the same. Writing people seldom are."
"I suppose you are?" suggested Lauriston.
"I've been mixed up in them all my life, more or less," she answered. "Couldn't help being, with my surroundings. You won't think me inquisitive if I ask you something? Were youhard upwhen you came round the other night?"
"Hard up's a mild term," replied Lauriston, frankly. "I hadn't a penny!"
"Excepting a gold watch worth twelve or fifteen pounds," remarked Zillah, drily. "And how long had you been like that?"
"Two or three daysmore or less," answered Lauriston. "You see, I've been expecting money for more than a weekthat was it."
"Has it come?" she asked.
"Noit hasn't," he replied, with a candid blush. "That's a fact!"
"Will it comesoon?" she demanded.
"By George!I hope so!" he exclaimed. "I'll be hard up again, if it doesn't."
"And then you offer to do for five what you might easily get ten for!" she said, almost reproachfully. "Let me give you a bit of advicenever accept a first offer. Stand out for a bit moreespecially from anybody like my cousin Melky."
"Is Melky a keen one, then?" enquired Lauriston.
"Melky's a young Jew," said Zillah, calmly. "I'm notI'm half-and-halfa mixture. My mother was Jewmy father wasn't. Wellif you want money to be going on with, and you've got any more gold watches, you know where to come. Don't you ever go with empty pockets in London while you've got a bit of property to pledge! You're not a Londoner, of course?"
"I'm a Scotsman!" said Lauriston.
"To be sureI knew it by your tongue," asserted Zillah. "And trying to make a living by writing! Well, you'll want courageand money. Have you had any luck?"
"I've sold two stories," answered Lauriston, who by that time was feeling as if the girl was an old friend. "They come to twenty pounds for the two, at the rate that magazine pays, and I've asked for a chequeit's that I'm waiting for. It ought to comeany time."
"Oh, but I know that game!" said Zillah. "I've two friendsgirlswho write. I know how they have to waittill publication, or till next pay-day. What a pity that some of you writers don't follow some other profession that would bring in a good incomethen you could do your writing to please yourselves, and not be dependent on it. Haven't you thought of that?"
"Often!" answered Lauriston. "And it wouldn't dofor me, anyway. I've made my choice. I'll stick to my penand swim or sink with it. And I'm not going to sink!"
"That's the way to talkto be sure!" said the girl. "Butkeep yourself in money, if you can. Don't go without money for three days when you've anything you can raise money on. You see how practical I am! But you've got to be in this world. Will you tell me something?"
"It strikes me," answered Lauriston, looking at her narrowly and bringing the colour to her cheeks, "that I'm just about getting to thisthat I'd tell you anything! And sowhat is it?"
"How much money have you left?" she asked softly.
"Precisely a shillingand a copper or two," he answered.
"Andif that cheque doesn't arrive?" she suggested.
"Maybe I'll be walking round to Praed Street again," he said, laughing.
"I've a bit of what you call property, yet."
The girl nodded, and turned towards a side-walk that led across the Gardens.
"All right," she said. "Don't think me inquisitiveI don't like to think ofof people like you being hard up: I'm not wrapped up in business as much as all that. Let's talk of something elsetell me what you write about."
Lauriston spent the rest of that afternoon with Zillah, strolling about Kensington Gardens. He had lived a very lonely life since coming to London, and it was a new and pleasant experience to him to have an intelligent companion to talk to. There was a decided sense of exhilaration within him when he finally left her; as for Zillah, she went homewards in a very thoughtful mood, already conscious that she was more than half in love with this good-looking lad who had come so strangely into her life. And at the corner of Praed Street she ran up against Mr. Melky Rubinstein, and button-holed him, and for ten minutes talked seriously to him. Melky, who had good reasons of his own for keeping in his cousin's favour, listened like a lamb to all she had to say, and went off promising implicit obedience to her commandments.
"Zillah ain't half gone on that chap!" mused Melky, as he pursued his way. "Now, ain't it extraordinary that a girl who'll come into a perfect fortune should go and fall head over ears in love with a red-headed young feller what ain't got a penny to bless hisself with! Not but what he ain't got good looksand brains. And brains is brains, when all's said!"
That night, as Lauriston sat writing in his shabby little room, a knock came at his doorthe door opened, and Melky slid in, laying his finger to the side of his large nose in token of confidence.
"Hope I ain't interrupting," said Melky. "I say, mister, I been thinking about that catalogue business. Now I come to sort of reflect on it, I think my friend'll go to ten pound. So we'll say ten poundwhat? And I'll take you to see him next Friday. And I say, misterif a pound or two on account 'ud be of any servicesay the word, d'ye see?"
With this friendly assurance, Melky plunged his hand into a hip-pocket, and drew out some gold, which he held towards Lauriston on his open palm.
"Two or three pound on account, now, mister?" he said, ingratiatingly.
"You're welcome as the flowers in May!"
But Lauriston shook his head; he had already decided on a plan of his own, if the expected remittance did not arrive next morning.
"No, thank you," he answered. "It's uncommonly good of youbut I can manage very well indeedI can, really! Next Friday, thenI'll go with you. I'm very much obliged to you."
Melky slipped his money into his pocketconscious of having done his part. "Just as you like, mister," he said. "But you was welcome, you know. Next Friday, thenand you can reckon on cash down for this job."
The Monday morning brought neither of the expected letters to Lauriston. But he had not spoken without reason when he said to Zillah that he had a bit of property to fall back uponnow that he knew how ready money could easily be raised. He had some pledgeable property in his trunkand when the remittances failed to arrive, he determined to avail himself of it. Deep down in a corner of the trunk he had two valuable ringsall that his mother had left him, with the exception of two hundred pounds, with which he had ventured to London, and on which he had lived up to then. He got the rings out towards the end of Monday afternoon, determining to take them round to Daniel Multenius and raise sufficient funds on them to last him for, at any rate, another month or two. He had little idea of the real value of such articles, and he had reasons of his own for not showing the rings to Melky Rubinstein; his notion was to wait until evening, when he would go to the pawnshop at about the same time as on his previous visit, in the hope of finding Zillah in charge again. After their meeting and talk of the afternoon before, he felt that she would do business with him in a sympathetic spiritand if he could raise twenty pounds on the rings he would be free of all monetary anxiety for many a long week to come.