"She did!" he exclaimed. "Gave Mr. Hollis money—for that? Why!—Mr. Hollis never told me of it!"
In the course of a long professional experience Easleby had learned to control his facial expression; Starmidge was gradually progressing towards perfection in that art. But each man was hard put to it to check an expression of astonishment. And Easleby showed some slight sign of perplexity when he replied.
"Mr. Hollis has—called on you, then?" he said.
"Hollis was here last Friday afternoon," answered Mr. Stipp. "Called on me at five o'clock—just before I was leaving for the day. He never offered me any money! Glad if he had—it's time young Lester paid up."
"What did Hollis come for, then, if that's a fair question?" asked Easleby.
"He came, I should say, to take a look at us, and find out who he'd got to deal with," replied the manager, smiling. "In plain language, to make an inquiry or two. He told me he'd been empowered by Mrs. Lester to deal with us, and he wanted the particulars of what we'd advanced to her son, and he got them—from me. But he never made me any offer. He just found out what he wanted to know—and went away."
"And, evidently, next day travelled to Scarnham," observed Easleby. "Now, Mr. Stipp, have you any idea whether his visit to Scarnham was in connection with the money affair of yours and young Lester's?"
Again the look of undoubted surprise; again the appearance of genuine perplexity.
"I?" exclaimed Mr. Stipp. "Not the least! Not the ghost of an idea! What could his visit to Scarnham have to do with us? Nothing!—that I know of, anyway."
"You don't think it rather remarkable that Mr. Hollis should go down there the very day after he called on you?" asked Starmidge, putting in a question for the first time.