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‘Now, you must remember that I was in my best clothes, and I certainly didn’t look like a penniless clerk. If the fellow had struck a blow at me, I couldn’t have been more astonished than I was by that answer. Astonishment was the first feeling, and it lasted about a second; then my heart gave a great leap, and began to beat violently, and for a moment I couldn’t see anything, and I felt hot and cold by turns. I can remember this as well as if it happened yesterday; I must have gone through it in memory many thousands of times.’

I observed his face, and saw that even now he suffered from the recollection.

‘When he had spoken, the blackguard turned away. I couldn’t move, and the wonder is that I didn’t swallow his insult, and sneak out of the place,–I was so accustomed, you see, to repress myself. But of a sudden something took hold of me, and pushed me forward,–it really didn’t seem to be my own will. I said, “Wait a minute”; and the man turned round. Then I stood looking him in the eyes. “Are you here,” I said, “to sell pictures, or to insult people who come to buy?” I must have spoken in a voice he didn’t expect; he couldn’t answer, and stared at me. “I asked you the price of that water-colour, and you will be good enough to answer me civilly.” Those were my very words. They came without thinking, and afterwards I felt satisfied with myself when I remembered them. It wouldn’t have been unnatural if I had sworn at him, but this was the turning-point of my life, and I behaved in a way that surprised myself. At last he replied, “The price is forty guineas,” and he was going off again, but I stopped him. “I will buy it. Take my name and address.” “When will it be paid for?” he asked. “On Monday.”

‘I followed him to the table, and he entered my name and address in a book. Then I looked straight at him again. “Now, you understand,” I said, “that that picture is mine, and I shall either come or send for it about one o’clock on Monday. If I hadn’t wanted it specially, you would have lost a sale by your impertinence.” And I marched out of the room.

‘But I was in a fearful state. I didn’t know where I was going,–I walked straight on, street after street, and just missed being run over half a dozen times. Perspiration dripped from me. The only thing I knew was that I had triumphed over a damned brute who had insulted me. I had stopped his mouth; he believed he had made a stupid mistake; he could never have imagined that a fellow without a sovereign in the world was speaking to him like that. If I had knocked him down the satisfaction would have been very slight in comparison.’

The gloom of nightfall had come upon us, and I could no longer see his face distinctly, but his voice told me that he still savoured that triumph. He spoke with exultant passion. I was beginning to understand Ireton.

‘Isn’t the story interesting?’ he asked, after a pause.

‘Very. Pray go on.’

‘Well, you mustn’t suppose that it was a mere bit of crazy bravado. I knew how I was going to get the money–the forty guineas. And as soon as I could command myself, I went to do the business.

‘A fellow-clerk in the drug warehouse had been badly in want of money not long before that, and I knew he had borrowed twenty pounds from a loan office, paying it back week by week, with heavy interest, out of his screw, poor devil. I could do the same. I went straight off to the lender. It was a fellow called Crowther; he lived in Dean Street, Soho; in a window on the ground floor there was a card with “Sums from One pound to a Hundred lent at short notice.” I was lucky enough to find him at home; we did our business in a little back room, where there was a desk and a couple of chairs, and nothing else but dirt. I expected to find an oldish man, but he seemed about my own age, and on the whole I didn’t dislike the look of him,–a rather handsome young fellow, fairly well dressed, with a taking sort of smile. I began by telling him where I was employed, and mentioned my fellow-clerk, whom he knew. That made him quite cheerful; he offered me a drink, and we got on very well. But he thought forty guineas a big sum; would I tell him what I wanted it for? No, I wouldn’t do that. Well, how long would it take me to pay it back? Could I pay a pound a week? No, I couldn’t. He began to shake his head and to look at me thoughtfully. Then he asked no end of questions, to find out who I was and what people I had belonging to me, and what my chances were. Then he made me have another drink, and at last I was persuaded into telling him the whole story. First of all he stared, and then he laughed; I never saw a man laugh more heartily. At last he said, “Why didn’t you tell me you had value in hand? See here, I’ll look at that picture on Monday morning, and I shouldn’t wonder if we can do business.” This alarmed me,–I was afraid he might get talking to the picture-dealer. But he promised not to say a word about me.