Rogues and Vagabonds

by George R. Sims

Then Grigg pulled out his watch, while Limpet read the Times.

‘Time?’ said Grigg, presently.

‘How long has he waited,’ asked Limpet.

‘Ten minutes,’ answered Grigg.

‘Give him another two, then,’ said Limpet, as though Mr. Gurth Egerton were an egg, and it was a question of how long he should be boiled.

When the twelve minutes were up Limpet rang a bell, and the clerk went in search of Mr. Egerton, and bowed him into the presence of the firm.

Mr. Egerton did not choose to enter into details with his solicitors, Grigg & Limpet, who had prepared themselves for a three-volume novel, and were disappointed when they found their client’s story was a dry summary, which would have done credit to the matter-of-fact columns of the Times. Mr. Egerton did not even throw in a little ‘picturesque reporting.’ He had been shipwrecked, and he had been saved; he had come home, and had not made himself known because he hated excitement; he thought if he showed up right on the top of the news of the shipwreck he should be inundated with inquiries about missing relatives, and worried by newspaper reporters. He had passed his house one evening, and he supposed that was when Mrs. Turvey saw him and thought he was a ghost. He had met Duck, Messrs. Grigg & Limpet’s clerk, last evening, and sent a message to them. He should take up his residence at his house again tomorrow, and on any matter of business that might be necessary Grigg & Limpet could communicate with him there. He would call on Birnie himself.

That was the substance of the professional interview. Mr. Grigg listened and said, ‘Exactly,’ ‘Indeed,’ and limited his share of the conversation to other remarks of a similar character. Limpet launched out a little more freely, but Mr. Egerton politely declined to be drawn beyond the boundary he had evidently marked out for himself.

When Mr. Egerton had retired, Grigs; said, ‘’Strodinary man,’ and Limpet nodded, and added, that ‘There was something more than that at the bottom of it, or he would eat his head.’

However, as it was not for them to inquire into their client’s secrets, but only to transact his business and protect his interest, they immediately set their clerks to work to prepare a statement which would show Mr. Egerton what had been done in his absence, and how his affairs stood.