The million pound banknote

I was getting desperate enough to take the pear despite all the shame of people watching me do it. But then a window behind me opened, and a gentleman spoke to me, saying 'Step in here, please'.

A well-dressed servant let me into the house. He took me to a richly-decorated room where a couple of elderly gentlemen were sitting. They sent away the servant, and made me sit down. They had just finished their breakfast. The sight of the food which was left over was almost too much for me. I could hardly think clearly in front of that food, but I was not asked to try any of it, so there was nothing I could do.

Now, something had been happening a little earlier. I didn't know about it until many days afterwards, but I will tell you about it now. A few days before, those two old brothers had been having a pretty hot argument. They had ended up agreeing to decide who was right by a bet, which is the English way of settling everything.

You will remember that the Bank of England once printed two banknotes of a million pounds each. These were to be used in a business deal with a foreign country. For some reason only one of these banknotes had been used. The other was still the vaults of the Bank.