The million pound banknote

'I'm changing my address. I will drop in and leave the new one with you.'

'Quite right, sir, quite right. One moment - let me show you out, sir. There - good day, sir, good day.'

Well, don't you see what was bound to happen? I drifted naturally into buying whatever I wanted, and asking for change. Within a week I was richly equipped with everything I needed to be comfortable. I stayed at an expensive private hotel in Hanover Square. I took my dinners there, but for breakfast I kept going to Harris's humble feeding house, the place where I had got my first meal on my million-pound banknote. Thanks to me, things were going well for Harris. The news had got out that the foreign crazy man who carried million-pound bills in his vest pocket was the patron saint of the place. That was enough. From being a poor, struggling, little hand-to-mouth business, it had become famous, and overcrowded with customers.

Harris was so grateful that he kept lending me money, and would not let me say no. So, pauper as I was, I had money to spend, and was living like the rich and the great. I judged that there was going to be a crash by and by, but I was in this mess now and I had to swim across it or drown.

Vocabulary:

Drop in: Make a quick unannounced visit
Bound: Here it means 'certain'
Drift: Here it means start doing something without deliberately meaning to
Humble: Having nothing to be proud about, and knowing it
Vest: In British English this is a 'waistcoat'.
Patron saint: Meaning someone important who looks after something that is not
Hand-to-mouth: Where what you earn needs to be spent on what you need
Pauper: A poor man
By and by: At some time in the future
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