"Everyone thinks his own crow the whitest," laughed Beecot. "But now that business is ended and you know what you are to do, will you tell me plainly why you warned me against Grexon Hay?"
"Hum," said the detective, looking at Paul with keen eyes, "what do you know about him, sir?"
Beecot detailed his early friendship with Hay at Torrington, and then related the meeting in Oxford Street. "And so far as I have seen," added Paul, justly, "there's nothing about the man to make me think he is a bad lot."
"It is natural you should think well of him as you know no wrong, Mr. Beecot. All the same, Grexon Hay is a man on the market."
"You made use of that expression before. What does it mean?"
"Ask Mr. Hay. He can explain best."
"I did ask him, and he said it meant a man who was on the marriage market."
Hurd laughed. "Very ingenious and untrue."
"Untrue!"
"Certainly. Mr. Hay knows better than that. If that were all he wouldn't think a working man would warn anyone against him."