IOUs

Chapter V
“The ready-money transactions had not lasted long through the night” (46). Sir Felix Carbury wants things to be “squared” before they play again so that he can get real money, but the losers, Lord Grasslough and Miles Grendall, are resistant. #IOUs

Chapter VII
Lady Carbury finds IOUs in Felix 's room “signed by other men” (59). #IOUs

Chapter X
“Latterly very little ready money had passed hands, -- very little in proportion to the sums which had been written down on paper, -- though Sir Felix was still so well in funds as to feel himself justified in repudiating any caution that his mother might give him” (83). #IOUs #Trust

“When I.O.U.’s have for some time passed freely in such a company as that now assembled the sudden introduction of a stranger is very disagreeable, particularly when that stranger intends to start for San Francisco on the following morning. . . . When these dealings in unsecured paper have been going on for a considerable time real bank notes come to have a loveliness which they never possessed before” (83).

In the game of cards played with Fisker, the different IOUs being passed around are labelled with their owner’s initial. Miles Grendall ’s are “peculiarly plentiful and very unattractive on these commercial occasions” (84). When Mr. Fisker wins 600 pounds worth of IOUs from Felix, Felix needs his own debtors to pay, since he had gambled with the others’ IOUs. The others argue that Felix should pay up because they were not expecting to have their IOUs “brought up in this way” (84). #IOUs

“He [ Paul Montague ] had only lately come among them, had as yet had no dealing in I.O.U.’s, and was the last man in the company who ought to be made responsible for the impecuniosity of Miles Grendall ” (86). #IOUs

Chapter XXIV
Felix wants to by a thousand pounds worth of shares of the Railway but half his money is in the form of IOUs from the Beargarden men. #IOUs

OUs are non-transferrable. When Miles Grendall starts winning card games because he is cheating, Paul Montaguehands over “ready money” to him. Felix asks Paul to take some of his IOUs and for Paul to give Felix the money so that Felix is benefiting by getting the “ready money” and Miles just wins his own IOUs back. However, Miles declares that his IOUs can’t be transferred to others, and the rest of the players agree with Miles because they say it’s unfair that Felix should benefit when they all have Miles’s IOUs and could trade them with Paul (200-201). #IOUs