Gastineau put out a protesting hand. “My dear Geof, don’t fly off at a tangent. I have waited so long that a few hours can hardly make a difference. Remember, even eminent surgical wonder-workers must dine.”
“Still,” Herriard urged, “I had better let him know without delay.”
“We will,” Gastineau returned quietly; “I will write him a note myself, and Hencher shall take it to his hotel at once. Will you give me my writing-flap?”
“I really think I had better go myself,” Herriard objected. “He may not know who you are, and so delay——”
“I will tell him and mention your name,” Gastineau said, already beginning to write. “I would rather you stayed with me: I have a little something to say to you.”
So Herriard looked through a magazine while the other wrote. Hencher was presently summoned and ordered to take a hansom to the Hotel Britannia, to deliver the note into Dr. Hallamar’s own hands, and to bring back an answer.
“You had something to say to me?” Herriard asked, when the man had gone.
“I had,” Gastineau replied. “It is a matter which I am sure will be less repugnant to you than it is to me. But I am forced by circumstances to mention it. You know, my dear Geof,” he continued, as Herriard sat in silence, wondering what was coming, “you know I have never asked you for any share in the more material rewards of the success to which I may claim to have helped you. I have always hoped that the need for any suggestion of the sort might never arise. Unfortunately it has arisen.”
“Not unfortunately, my dear friend,” Herriard broke in responsively. “I am only too glad if you are going to give me the opportunity of reducing in a small degree my immense debt to you which I could never hope to repay.”
“I know that, Geof,” Gastineau replied. “I was sure of it. Still I have never, as you know, till now, contemplated any financial adjustment between us. As it is, the present question of my ways and means which I have been going into results in my being in need of a thousand pounds.”