Payment Deferred by C.S. Forester — Read

Mr. Marble arrived home one evening lighter of step and of heart than he had been for some time previously. Even when the shadow of the gallows lies across one's path one cannot help feeling a little elated when one has just received, and paid into a new account at a new bank, receiving the homage of a bank manager, the sum of twenty-seven thousand pounds odd.

Mr. Marble was done with speculation. The money, as he had decided in a serious conference with the bank manager, was all going into gilt-edged investments -- save for a thousand pounds which was destined for the purchase of 53 Malcolm Road. Even with this deduction Mr. Marble would be in the possession of the comfortable income of twelve hundred pounds a year, although -- as the bank manager said deprecatingly -- the income-tax collector would have a fat slice out of it.