“I shall be ruined, if this misfortune becomes known! You must help
me out of the difficulty without the affair coming into the papers.”
“We will do our best. But we cannot guarantee success; and I must
say that it is an invaluable advantage to have the police on our
side.”
“The police must know nothing about it. The business lies entirely
between my clients and myself. I should lose all my customers at
once if, through the slightest indiscretion, they were led to
suspect their valuable property to have passed into other hands
pro tem.”
“But suppose some of them wish to redeem the property upon which you
have advanced them money?”
“They are not likely to do that at present. The season has been an
exceptionally gay one, and a gay season is always an expensive one.
Society dames will be glad to leave their plate and jewellery at
‘their bankers’ until their most pressing debts are settled.
Meanwhile, I have sufficient confidence in your acumen to hope that
you will speedily recover the missing goods.”
We could not help thinking that Mr Davison’s confidence in us was
too overweening to be anything but embarrassing, even though our
vanity was flattered by having the sole onus of responsibility for
the recovery of stolen goods fixed upon us.