Merrifield. [Passing behind Dunning and half-seating himself on the further end of the table on the left.] Skip everything in between; [sarcastically] my father and mother are dying for their dinner.
Lady Filson.
Bertram!
Dunning.
[Finding the memorandum he is searching for, and quoting from it.] Henry Merrifield—entry clerk to Titterton—left Titterton, after a row, on the fifteenth of the present month——
Bertram.
A stroke of luck—Mr. Merrifield—if ever there was one! I mean t'say——
Dunning.
[To everybody.] Having gleaned certain significant facts from the said Henry Merrifield, ladies and gentlemen, [referring to his notes] I paid two visits last week to the offices of Messrs. Hopwood & Co., of 6, Carmichael Lane, Walbrook, described in fresh paint on their door as Shipping and General Agents; and the conclusion I arrived at was that Messrs. Hopwood & Co. were a myth and their offices a blind, the latter consisting of a small room on the ground floor, eight foot by twelve, and their staff of the caretakers of the premises—Mr. and Mrs. Sweasy—an old woman and her husband——
Roope.