at the same time said a week or two more or less
did not signify for the money being paid—I got
the one to draw and the other to accept, a bill
for six hundred pounds at three months, for
which one hundred pounds was to be deducted by
way of interest. This was done, and taking
the draft to one of the chief West-end money-
lenders, I got the money for it, and paid it over
to the borrower. In course of time the bill
became due, and not being paid, an attorney's
letter was written to each party requesting an
immediate remittance. To my dismay, replies
were received from both drawer and acceptor
denying any knowledge whatever of the bill. I
then wrote requesting them to give me an
interview, which they did, but two strangers
presented themselves. To make a long story
short, I found, after a vast deal of inquiry,
that we had been victimised by two clever
sharpers, who had, by some means or other,
obtained a knowledge of these two gentlemen's
references, and of other particulars respecting
them. My fault had been, that I had never
identified one or other of the parties whom I
had seen. The commercial firm and the army
agents that had answered for these gentlemen's
respectability, had done so in perfect good faith,
believing that I had satisfied myself as to their
being the persons they represented themselves
to be. The trick was cleverly carried out; for,
during the interview I had with the swindlers
before they got the money, one of them, as if by
chance, pulled out of his breast-pocket a number
of old letters, on one of which he commenced to
make some calculations with a pencil. These
letters were addressed to the person whose name
their owner had assumed. The calling cards of
both impostors also bore the names of the gentlemen
whom they pretended to be. But clever
or otherwise, nothing was ever seen or heard
again of these men, and their swindle cost the
money-lender five hundred pounds, whilst it
cut me out from ever doing business again with
him.

It is not, however, that I often do business
on any large scale by means of advertisement.
The line that I excel most in, is giving
information and advice as to where bills may be
discounted or loans obtained. Thus of an evening,
in the smoking-room of the club, some individual
who has been hard hit at the Derby, or is otherwise
in want of money, will say to me, "Come, So-
and-so, you know everybody in London, tell me,
like a good fellow, how to get a couple of hundred
pounds." I—of course professing to be open and
candid—reply that I don't often do much myself
in that line, but that when I do want anything
of the kind, I go to an old rascal of such a name,
living in a certain street, and that if the inquirer
likes I will introduce him to the villain next
day. In the mean time I take care to inform
myself well who and what the men are who
propose to draw and accept the bill. This
done, I despatch a private and confidential
note to my principal, telling him that I
shall call at such an hour to introduce a
certain party to him who wants to borrow
fifty, a hundred, or more pounds from him, as
the case may be. In the, note I also give him
information as to whether, and to what extent,
the borrower may be trusted, what his position
is, what his means, character, &c., and the
name of the man who has accepted the
bill, or otherwise has become surety; also,
whether the money is wanted in a great
hurry, and to what extent the victim will
probably stand bleeding. I then take my friend to
call upon the money-lender, who makes his own
terms with the victim, and next day I return
and pocket my commission of five per cent upon
the business done.

Persons who have never been mixed up in
bill-discounting matters, will hardly believe the
enormous rates of interest often paid for money,
even by men who are really perfectly solvent, but
who happen to be very much pushed tor immediate
accommodation. Not longer ago than last year, I
remember that an officer in the Guards—the son
of a nobleman, and himself a man of some means
—lost a considerable sum at Ascot. To pay the
money on settling day was a matter of vital
importance, without which he could never have held
up his head again either in society or in his regiment.
He happened at the moment to have
overdrawn the balance at his banker's, and—either
from a foolish shame, or some other motive—did
not like to ask his father for money, or even to
go to the family lawyer. The sum he wanted
was two hundred and fifty pounds, and for this
amount, besides insuring his life for five hundred
pounds in favour of the lender, he actually gave
his note of hand, payable in three months, for
five hundred pounds, being at the rate of four
hundred per cent per annum interest. The
conditions he made were, in the first place, that he
should receive the money in twenty-four hours;
secondly, that no one should know he had
borrowed it; thirdly, that no other person's
name should be required as security to the note
of hand. His requests were all complied with.
I was the fortunate "tout" who introduced this
gentleman to the money-lender, and I received
three ten pound notes for my morning's work.

As a general rule, however, money-lenders do
not like to discount in large sums. To use their
own slang, they prefer not to have too many
eggs in the same pot. They delight in a number
of small bills, so that if one, two, or three turn
out bad speculations, the others pay for them
—the good thus paying for the bad.

A young man whom I had known for some
time as often requiring monetary "accommodation,"
but who—as I learnt from the discounters,
to whom I had introduced him—always met his
bills at maturity, asked me one evening, in the
smoking-room of the club, if I could put him in
the way of getting "a largish bill done." I
found it was for fifteen hundred pounds,
drawn by himself, and accepted by a gentleman
of considerable landed property—a baronet,
who had formerly been in the Guards—in Scotland.
I replied that I thought I could introduce
him to a man who would let him have
the money, and we made an appointment