“Doctor,” said Lechworthy, “I’ve said very little so far about all you’ve done for us. You haven’t let me,” he added plaintively.
“You see, Lechworthy,” said Pryce, “you do exaggerate the thing so. If a bricklayer who had nothing to do came and laid a few bricks for you, you wouldn’t think it anything to make a fuss about—especially if he did it because he liked it. If an unemployed doctor does a little doctoring for you, and enjoys doing it, that’s the same thing. It’s what he’s there for. Really, Hilda’s case gave me some new and valuable experience, and I’m very glad to have had it.”
The transition from Miss Auriol to Hilda had come at one point of Hilda’s illness; it had come by natural evolution from the circumstances. Afterwards, when Pryce resumed the “Miss Auriol,” Hilda wanted to know if he was angry with her about anything, and the “Miss Auriol” was then definitely abandoned.
“Well,” said Lechworthy, “that’s your way of looking at it. But you must see my way of looking at it too. Now I don’t want to think about the financial side.”
“There is none and can be none.”
“So you have decided, and I’ve submitted to it. But I tell you this—if any doctor in London had done as much for me, my conscience would not have let me sleep until I had paid him a very big fee indeed; and even then I should have felt indebted to him every day of my life. If I can pass over that financial side it’s because even in the very few days that I have known you I have come to regard you as a friend. I do not make friends easily. In questions of politics, and even, I fear, in questions of faith, we are as far apart as the poles. But I—I’ve formed a very high opinion of you, doctor, and I want your friendship.”
“Well,” said Pryce, “you force my hand. I thought it would come to it. Before you say anything further, Lechworthy, there is something you ought to be told. Sit down here, won’t you? At one time, to save the men of the Exiles’ Club, I was ready and eager to murder you and many others.”
“You meant,” said Lechworthy, “to sink the Snowflake?”
“I did.”
Lechworthy did not look shocked, nor even surprised. “Well,” he said, “the King warned me not to give you a passage. We speak in confidence, you and I; you will not let him know that I told you this and will not show any resentment.”