"If you want a word private with me, Mr. Harden, where there'sh no one can shee us, you'll be as private as the deshert of Harabia if you walk round the corner of the shtreet."
Arden nodded, and walked out into the Strand, accompanied by Mr. Levi. They turned to the left, and a few steps brought them to the corner of Cecil Street. The street widens a little after you pass its narrow entrance. It was still enough to justify Mr. Levi's sublime comparison. The moon shone mistily on the river, which was dotted and streaked, at its further edge with occasional red lights from windows, relieved by the black reflected outline of the building which made their back-ground. At the foot of the street, at that time, stood a clumsy rail, and Richard Arden leaned his arm on this, as he talked to the Jew, who had pulled his short cloak about him; and in the faint light he could not discern his features, near as he stood, except, now and then, his white eye-balls, faintly, as he turned, or his teeth when he smiled.
"You mentioned, Mr. Levi, in your note, that you were instructed, by some person who takes an interest in me, to open this business," said Richard Arden, in a more conciliatory tone. "Will your instructions permit you to tell me who that person is?"
"No, no," drawled Mr. Levi, with a slow shake of his head; "I declare to you sholemnly, Mr. Harden, I couldn't. I'm employed by a third party, and though I may make a tolerable near guess who's firsht fiddle in the bishness, I can't shay nothin'."
"Surely you can say this--it is hardly a question, I am so sure of it--is the friend who lends this money a gentleman?"
"I think the pershon as makesh the advanshe is a bit of a shwell. There, now, that'sh enough."
"But I said a _gentleman_," persisted Arden.
"You mean to ask, hashn't a lady got nothing to do with it?"
Mr. Levi shook his head slowly, and all his white teeth showed dimly, as he answered with an unctuous significance that tempted Arden strongly to pitch him into the river.
"We puts the ladiesh first; ladiesh and shentlemen, that's the way it goes at the theaytre; if a good-looking chap's a bit in a fix, there'sh no one like a lady to pull him through."
"I really want to know," said Richard Arden, with difficulty restraining his fury. "I have some relations who are likely enough to give me a lift of this kind; some _are_ ladies, and some gentlemen, and I have a right to know to whom I owe this money."