And a shabby waistcoat hung unbuttoned at the swoop of a horned thumb. "One moment," said the doctor. "If you are really coming to me, and coming to stay, I am to telephone to my tailor, who will take some little time getting here." "Your tailor!" cried Croucher. "Where the dooce does 'e come in?" "You may well ask!" replied Dollar with involuntary candor. "That friend in need, who was the first to assert your innocence, and to whom you owe more than you will ever know, is anxious to give you a fresh start in life, and an entire new outfit in which to make it." "Well! I call that 'andsome," declared Alfred Croucher, for once without reserve. "I won't arst 'oo it is no more, but I shall live in 'opes o' findin' out an' sayin' thanky like a man. Not but wot it's right," he added after all, "for them as is rich to 'old out an 'elpin' 'and to them as is pore and 'ave been tret like I've been, through no fault o' their[Pg 86] own. But it ain't everybody as sees it like that, an' it makes you think better o' the world when you strike them as does." [Pg 86] "I agree," said the doctor, in a tone entirely lost on his expansive patient. "I'm griteful to 'im," that worthy went so far as to assert, "and to you too, sir, if it comes to that." Doctor Dollar took the opportunity of being no less explicit in his turn. "There's no reason why it should come to that, Croucher, I assure you. I can not too strongly impress on you that anything I do for you is by business arrangement with the friend who takes this extraordinary interest in your career." In this statement, but especially in its relative clause, there was a note of sheer resentment which recalled other notes and other clauses to the retentive memory of Mr. Croucher. In a flash the lot had fused in his suspicious mind, and so visibly that Dollar was relieved to find himself the object of suspicion. "You talk as if it went against your grain," said Croucher, with a growl and a show of growler's teeth. "I 'ope you don't think I went an' done it all the time, do yer?"[Pg 87] [Pg 87] "I don't follow you, Croucher." "I mean the big job—the
Prev.
Back
Top