"Let me offer you some claret.

I have some in the cupboard." "No, thank you," the visitor answered, staring across at the head of the firm as though he were some botanical curiosity.

"Extraordinary fellow.
'Iron' Girdlestone, they call you in the City.

A good name, too-- ha! ha!--an excellent name.

Iron-grey, you know, and hard to look at, but soft here, my dear sir, soft here." The little man tapped him with his walking-stick over the cardiac region and laughed boisterously, while his grim companion smiled slightly and bowed to the compliment.
"I've come here begging," said Mr.Jefferson Edwards, producing a portentous-looking roll of paper from an inner pocket.