Here's Luck by Lennie Lower

Days passed, during which I waited in vain for a registered letter from Agatha. I even went up the street and peered down the drain, thinking that perhaps the postman may have thoughtlessly disposed of it.

I was not actually in need of money, thanks to my own thrift and George's generosity, but ten pounds is ten pounds. Although, as I explained to George after three or four days had elapsed, I would rather have died than accept it. One has one's honour to consider and as I have said before, the Gudgeons are a proud family. We are a noble family. The name, Gudgeon, is a corruption, or rather, a modernization of the original Good John or John the Good. I am not sure whether the original John the Good was really King John, or John the Baptist. Suffice it to say that the Gudgeons were nobles when William the Conqueror and his gang were still in short pants. It would ill become a descendant of such a family to lower his standard of conduct by even so little as an inch. I told Stanley that if they did send me the ten pounds I would immediately send it back, and he agreed that this was the best thing to do. As he remarked, we could hold out for twenty.