James's reflections were interrupted by the sudden opening of the door, which admitted a strange young gentleman into our presence. He was followed by Doctor Brink himself.
"This," said the latter gentleman, "is Mr. Reginald Cavendish, who has come to inquire about the practice. He is charmed with the situation of the house, my dear."
"What I mean to say," explained Reginald, having made his bows, "is that you've got so many windows, and such decent rooms. One doesn't expect that sort of thing in the East End. My pater will be quite pleased. It's my pater who's going to buy this practice for me, you know. I'm studying law, you know—goin' in for this medico-legal game—and my pater thinks this'd be a good thing to amuse myself with until I'm through. It's all cash, you say, Doctor.... Ah! Well, it saves a lot of fag, book-keepin', an' that—what? Not exactly what you might term 'classy,' but—you needn't tell people, eh? Who's to know—what?
"Of course," continued Mr. Cavendish, as if in answer to an imaginary objector, "the patients do smell, I suppose. But a chap could have a change here. A sort of professional uniform—what? Ha! Ha! This place all right for gettin' about, Doctor? Easy reach of the West End and all that sort of thing?"
"We are served by two railways," responded Doctor Brink, "besides a tramline. And there are cabs at the London Hospital."
"No motor-buses, then—what? No motor-buses?"
Doctor Brink was able to assure his visitor that the boon of the motor-bus would not be absent from that gentleman's future joys.
The cloud which had sombred Mr. Cavendish's features immediately gave place to a smile.
"Good business," he cried. "Whenever a chap gets too awfully fed up with it, then, he can nip on to something or other and have a night at the Pav.—what? Besides," added Mr. Cavendish, "a chap can put up with a lot for twelve hundred a year. That's what it's doing, you say?"
"That's what I'm doing," replied Doctor Brink. "But then," he explained, with a mild expression, "I haven't tried the effect of running the practice from the Pav."