"What are you attempting to suggest?" Marsh asked, his face pale, either with fear or anger.
"I suggest that you know why Miss Wickham went to Mr. Seligmann and that it was upon some matter which concerned yourself."
"Do you know Seligmann?" Marsh asked.
"I know a great deal about him."
"Then you know that he was a different man, according to his company. You may only have seen the decent side of him, but he was a blood-sucker of the worst description."
"So he had you in his money-lending hands, had he?"
"He had. Morally, I had paid my debt, but a legal quibble kept me in his power, and he refused to give up certain papers of mine."
"Which you had no right to part with, I presume," said Quarles.
"Miss Wickham said she had some influence with Seligmann," Marsh went on, taking no notice of the professor's remark, "and said she would try and get the papers back."
"What price was she to pay for them?"