With this ' party' I got into conversation,
and he very kindly renewed the document.
I kept my word, in paying him when the fresh
bill became due, and since that we have been
very good friends indeed. He has more than
once melted some valuable stamp paper for me,
and when the railway mania broke out, I got
him to allot me shares in some of the very best
things going; for he is very much sought after
as a director."

"Pray, may I ask the name of your friend?"
said I, little thinking what Coxon's reply would
be.

"His name?" said the captain; " his name
is Skeeme."

"What!" said I, " John Skeeme?"

"Yes," said Coxon; " do you know him?"

"Of course I do," was my reply; " he was
valet to a cousin of mine in the Guards."

"Impossible, my dear fellow," said Coxon.
"I have known Mr. Skeeme for three years and
more, and have often met him at his office in
the City, where he keeps two clerks, and has
long done a considerable stroke of business in
money-lending."

To make a long story short, I went next
day with Coxon into the City, and in a court
somewhere behind the Mansion House, up two
pair of stairs, we came to a door, upon which
was painted the name " Mr. Skeeme." Inside
were two clerks, one of whom seemed to be
copying very long and complicated accounts
which the other read off from a ledger. On
asking for Mr. Skeeme, we were told that he
was within, but very busy indeed with two
gentlemen, and would not be disengaged for an
hour. We therefore went away; and, taking me
to a stationer's, Coxon wrote a note of introduction
for me, as he was pressed for time, and could
not remain any longer at the east-end of town.

Armed with this document, I returned to Mr.
Skeeme's office, and was at once shown into his
sanctuary. As I had imagined, this great railway
director was no other than my old friend.

I neither presented Coxon's letter of
introduction, nor mentioned his name, for I did not
want Skeeme to feel humiliated by the other's
knowing he had been a valet. I pretended that
I had seen his name down as a director of the
new " Edinburgh and Cornwall Direct" line, and
begged he would do his best to allot me a couple
of hundred shares. This he not only agreed
to do, but even offered, and I accepted, to put
my name down for a hundred extra shares: all
of which I sold as soon as the prospectus was
published in the Times, at a premium, of two
pounds ten shillings each.

As soon as our conversation about shares
was over, Skeeme entered into a long explanation
with me.

"I have had this office," said he, " for about
four years, although, when valet to the colonel,
I could not visit it every day. For a long time
I did nothing except in the private bill
discounting line; but when all the new railways
began to be projected, I was asked by people,
who only knew me in my business capacity, to
become a director. After a great deal of
hesitation I agreed to join the Chatham and
Portsmouth board. Being a director, I allotted
myself a thousand shares, and sold them next day
at two pounds premium. This was a very short
time before my old master married. I knew I
should have to leave him, and thought I might
as well turn railway director as take to any
other trade. I am, or I have been, on the direction
of seven lines, and by these I have netted
at least fourteen thousand pounds. But I
think these fine days won't last very long,
and so I intend this line to be my last
venture. If it succeeds, as we believe it will,
and I can get three pounds premium on the
three thousand shares I have taken, I shall
retire from the business, for I feel pretty
certain that a crash will soon come."

After this, so long as my leave of absence
lasted, hardly a couple of days passed without
my going to Skeeme's office. The rage for
railway shares lasted a little longer than he
had prophesied, and I managed to make some
four or five thousand pounds. My friend Skeeme
would have done better if he had kept to his first
resolution. After selling all his shares, he was
induced, by love of gain, to recommence
speculation again, and when the crash came it found
him still mixed up as director with four or five
schemes, any one of which was of itself enough
to eat up all his profits, and more. When the
evil day arrived, he was sued by two or three
railway shareholders, and judgments were given
against him. Little by little he had to part with
nearly every pound he had; for being known to
be a rich man, every shareholder in every
company he had been connected with at any time,
began to issue writs against him. He tried to
get away to France, but some of his creditors
were too sharp for him, and he was arrested
upon a " capias " at Dover. He went to jail,
and offered to compound with his creditors.
His offer was refused, and so he filed his petition
and went through the Bankruptcy Court,
coming out at the end of three months without
a shilling. My cousin, who liked poor Skeeme
very much, settled one hundred pounds a year
upon him, and the ex-valet retired to the country,
where he and his wife lived on the annuity which
their old master " the colonel" allowed him.

Some fifteen years passed by, and I saw or
heard nothing of Skeeme. I had been out to
India again; had come back once more; had
then gone through a period of home service;
after which I had embarked for Canada, and
had come back to England after selling out.
Happening to go into the City one morning, I
ran against a gentleman who was coming out
of a bank as I was going in. He turned to
apologise, and before I could call to mind
where I had seen his face before, he
recognised me, called me by my name, and shook
hands with me very heartily. The man was
no other than my old acquaintance Skeeme.
Not being able to talk in the noisy streets of
the City, we went together to a luncheon-bar,
and there he told me that he had remained some