“All right I didn’t expect you would. Of course I should have found you out some time from the directories.”
“My name is not in them, sir.”
“Oh, but it soon would be, Doctor. I say, shall you tell her you have seen me?”
“For cool impudence, Mr Claud Wilton,” said Leigh, by way of answer, “I have never seen your equal.”
“’Tisn’t impudence, Doctor,” said Claud, earnestly; “it’s pluck and bull-dog. I haven’t been much account, and I don’t come up to what you think a fellow should be.”
“You certainly do not,” said Leigh, unable to repress a smile.
“I know that, but I’ve got some stuff in me, after all, and when I take hold I don’t let go.”
He gave Leigh a quick nod, and thrusting his hands into his pockets, walked right on, without looking back, Leigh watching him till he turned a corner, before taking out a latch-key and letting himself into the house.
“The devil does not seem so black as he is painted, after all,” he said, as he wiped his feet, and at the sound Jenny, quite without crutches, came hurrying down the stairs.
“Oh, Pierce, dear, have you been to those people in Bedford Street? They’ve been again twice, and I told them you’d gone.”