Mr. Brooks didn’t quite see what the senior partner’s idea was, but he did as he was requested. He went out and purchased a shilling stamp in the neighbourhood, and returned to Eden Villa to fill it up and accept it in accordance with Marston’s instructions.
‘Now,’ said Marston, when it was finished, ‘leave the rest to me.’
Directly Mr. Brooks had gone, Mr. Marston took a hansom and drove over to Birnie’s.
Dr. Birnie was in, and on this occasion Rebecca admitted the visitor without any preliminary parleying through the flap. Mr. Edward Marston was a very different-looking person in his faultless clothes to the seedy-looking fellow who had once aroused Rebecca’s suspicions as to the honesty of his intentions.
‘Well, Marston,’ said the doctor, as his visitor was ushered in, ‘come to see me again?’
‘Yes, old fellow, and of course I want a favour.’
‘I’m sorry to hear it. The favours you generally want are expensive ones.’
‘You’re needlessly rude, Birnie,’ answered Marston, eyeing his old companion disdainfully. ‘I’ve never asked you for anything but the payment of a just debt. I am happy to say I am now quite independent of the assistance of my friends.’
He spoke the last word with a scornful accent.
As soon as Birnie understood that Marston had not come to him for money, his manner changed, and he was as cordial as he had previously been cold.