The Tale of Lal Part 19

"'True,' a.s.sented the Lion, 'save that some of us never change that ill humour, but continue with it all through life. You yourself are one of those people.'

"'Humph! I certainly have displeased you,' vouchsafed the tall thin gentleman; 'how I really cannot imagine.'

"'I will tell you,' replied the Lion. 'Listen, therefore, carefully.

Let us go back to the very beginning of our acquaintance. I am correct in stating that you were a homeless, ragged little urchin prowling the streets of London.' The tall thin man nodded. 'I gave you the only shelter you knew; others have used it since, all of them models of grat.i.tude compared with yourself. My friends.h.i.+p did not stop there.

You wanted work, a home, a name and riches. Who directed you to the City? who told you how to start, and where you would find all those things so long as you worked hard and were honest?'

"'I did all those things,' interrupted the tall thin man; 'I did work hard, I got a home, name, riches, and I have been honest.'

"'Until to-day,' purred the Lion, 'until to-day, Alderman Gold.'

"'To-day,' echoed the Alderman, but he started slightly.

"'Those shares you bought in the City to-day, a very great number, do you call that transaction honest?'

"The Alderman's eyes sought the ground.

"'Three people will be ruined in that transaction if you keep to it.'

"'Think of the money.'

"'Think of your name.'

"'I must have money.'

"The Lion laughed. 'You have heaps more than you require. Can you name one good thing you have done with your money or your influence since I plainly pointed the way out to you how to acquire them?'

"There was no answer.

"'Will you still decide to acquire those shares dishonestly?'

"'Anybody in the City or on 'Change would do the same thing, it is done every day.'

"'Because burglaries may be committed every night, is it any reason why you should commit one?'

"'The world is the world,' replied the Alderman. 'I have to live in it, and I have to fight it with its own weapons.'

"'You have no wife.'

"'No, Lal.'

"'No child.'

"'No.'

"'No single soul your wealth can do any good for.'

"'I need it all for myself.'

"'You are h.o.a.rding money fast.'

"'I shall need it all when I can no longer work; the value of money decreases day by day. What is a fortune now will only be a pittance a very few years hence.'

"'All for yourself?'

"'Yes.'

"'Nothing will change you?'

"'Why should it? I have only myself to consider, and I mean to make more and more, and more, and never stop; there shall be no limit to what I shall acquire, it is the only thing I care about now in life.'

"'In addition,' said the Lion, 'you are cutting down every little comfort and every luxury you might enjoy because you are becoming frightened at every small expense.'

"'Yes, growing expenses are the worries of my life.'

"'In fact, you are becoming daily, slowly and surely, a miser.'

"'It's not a nice word.'

"'It is the truth. Your clerks are the most ill-paid of any in the City of London. Only last week you cut down your office boy's tiny salary from ten s.h.i.+llings a week to seven s.h.i.+llings, although you know he has to pay two s.h.i.+llings a week for fares to and from your office.'

"'How can I help his living out of town?'

"'You know he has to live with his mother and brothers and sisters, five of them in addition to himself. He only takes home five s.h.i.+llings every week, but he _gives_ it all up; he is happier than you are.'

"'Any way, I know how to arrange my own business,' snapped the Alderman. 'I have prospered so far, and I intend to go on and prosper; I am not going to change a single thing in my life or my methods of business. I have prospered up to now, I shall prosper even more.'

"'And h.o.a.rd more?' inquired Lal gently.

"'Yes, you call it h.o.a.rding. I call it ama.s.sing, and I shall strain every nerve to ama.s.s more and more; it is too late in my life to alter now.'

"'We shall see,' said the Lion. 'I was going to ask you to do something for me, something for some one who is as penniless as you were once yourself; but if I did ask you a favour now I should only waste time.'

"'I have no time for charity,' said the Alderman. 'I heartily begrudge the subscriptions we have to give from time to time in the City, yet one is compelled to a.s.sist some of those for the sake of business; but as for any outside charity, pooh! it's all rot, it's been proved long ago they are all frauds. I shall always decline absolutely to give anything or do anything for any outside charity. Life is too short.'

"'We shall see,' said the Lion. 'Good-night.'

"When Lal's friend from the City had departed, I came out from the corner where I had been waiting, and Sam and I clambered up into our old place out of sight. At that time I considered the City Alderman a very horrid mean old man, and remembering Lal's words that he was a miser, I made a mental resolution that although this was the first specimen of the kind I had ever encountered, I never wished to meet another of the same sort.

"'Well?' inquired Lal, as I lay and looked up into his face before settling down for the night. 'What do you think of him?'

"''Ard-hearted, ain't 'e?' I replied.

"'Humph! yes, at present,' mused Lal.

"'Wot will yer give 'im ter take for it?' I asked.

"Lal smiled. 'Oh, a little prescription of my own.'