The Prime Minister | Page 7

better thing of an hour now and an hour then, just as it pleases
you. I shouldn't dare go in for that kind of thing.
'I don't suppose you or any one else know what I go in for,' said Lopez,
with a look that indicated offence.
'Nor don't care,' said Sexty;--'only hope it's something good, for your
sake.' Sexty Parker had known Mr Lopez well, now for some years, and
being an overbearing man himself,--somewhat even of a bully if the
truth be spoken,--and by no means apt to give way unless hard pressed,
had often tried his 'hand' on his friend, as he himself would have said.
But I doubt whether he could remember any instance in which he could
congratulate himself on success. He was trying his hand again now, but
did it with a faltering voice, having caught a glance of his friend's eye.
'I dare say not,' said Lopez. Then he continued without changing his
voice or the nature of his eye. 'I'll tell you what I want you to do now. I
want your name to this bill for three months.'
Sexty Parker opened his mouth and his eyes, and took the bit of paper
that was tendered to him. It was a promissory note for 750 pounds,
which, if signed by him, would at the end of the specified period make
him liable for that sum were it not otherwise paid. His friend Mr Lopez
was indeed applying to him for the assistance of his name in raising a
loan to the amount of the sum named. This was a kind of favour which
a man should ask almost on his knees,--and which, if so asked, Mr
Sextus Parker would certainly refuse. And here was Ferdinand Lopez

asking it, who, Sextus Parker had latterly regarded as an opulent
man,--and asking it not at all on his knees, but, as one might say, at the
muzzle of a pistol. 'Accommodation bill!' said Sexty. 'Why, you ain't
hard up, are you?'
'I'm not going just at present to tell you much about my affairs, and yet
I expect you to do what I ask you. I don't suppose you doubt my ability
to raise 750 pounds.'
'Oh, dear, no,' said Sexty, who had been looked at and who had not
borne the inspection well.
'And I don't suppose you would refuse me even if I were hard up, as
you call it.' There had been affairs before between the two men in
which Lopez had probably been the stronger, and the memory of them,
added to the inspection which was still going on, was heavy upon poor
Sexty.
'Oh, dear, no;--I wasn't thinking of refusing, I suppose a fellow may be
a little surprised at such a thing.'
'I don't know why you should be surprised, as such things are very
common. I happen to have taken a share in a loan a little beyond my
immediate means, and therefore want a few hundreds. There is no one I
can ask with a better grace than you. If you ain't--afraid about it, just
sign it.'
'Oh, I ain't afraid,' said Sexty, taking his pen and writing his name
across the bill. But even before the signature was finished, when his
eye was taken away from the face of his companion and fixed upon the
disagreeable piece of paper beneath his hand, he repented of what he
was doing. He almost arrested his signature half-way. He did hesitate,
but had not pluck enough to stop his hand. 'It does seem to be an odd
transaction all the same,' he said as he leaned back in his chair.
'It's the commonest thing in the world,' said Lopez picking up the bill in
a leisurely way, folding it and putting it into his pocket-book. 'Have our
names never been together on a bit of paper before?'

'When we both had something to make by it.'
'You've nothing to make and nothing to lose by this. Good day and
many thanks,--though I don't think so much of the affair as you seem to
do.' Then Ferdinand Lopez took his departure, and Sexty Parker was
left alone in bewilderment.
'By George,--that's queer,' he said to himself. 'Who'd have thought of
Lopez being hard up for a few hundred pounds? But it must be all right.
He wouldn't have come in that fashion, if it hadn't been all right. I
oughtn't to have done it though! A man ought never to do that kind of
thing,--never,--never!' And Mr Sextus Parker was much discontented
with himself, so that when he got home that evening to the wife of his
bosom and his little family at Ponders End, he by no means made
himself agreeable to them. For that sum of 750 pounds sat upon