"Perhaps you know him personally?" Mr. Fox said, and he went on in the most easy and affable fashion: "I may say without boasting that I am acquainted with most people—most people of any consequence: it is part of my business. But George Morris, somehow, I had never met. You may imagine, then, that when he came down here, to ask a few questions, I was precious glad to be of such service as I could; for I said to myself that here was just the man for me. Take a great scandal, for example—they do happen sometimes, don’t they?—even in this virtuous land of England: very well—I go to George Morris—a hint from him—and there I am first in the field: before the old mummies of the London press have had time to open their eyes and stare." Vincent had brought a chair from the side of the room, and was now seated: there was only the table, littered with telegrams and proofs, between those two. "Did I understand you to say," he asked, with his eyes fixed on this man, "that George Morris had come to you to make inquiries about Mr. Bethune?" "You understood aright." "Who sent him?" demanded Vincent, abruptly—for there were strange fancies and still darker suspicions flying through his head. But Courtnay Fox smiled. "George Morris, you may have heard, was not born yesterday. His business is to get out of you what he can, and to take care you get nothing out of him. It was not likely he would tell me why he came making these inquiries—even if I had cared to ask, which I did not." "You told him all you knew, of course, about Mr. Bethune?" Vincent went on, with a certain cold austerity. "I did." "And how much more?" "Ah, very good—very neat," the spacious-waisted journalist exclaimed with a noisy laugh. "Very good indeed. But look here, Mr. Harris, if the great solicitor was not born yesterday, you were—in a way; and so I venture to ask you why you should take such an interest in Mr. Bethune’s affairs?" Vincent answered him without flinching. "Because, amongst other things, certain lies have been put in circulation about Mr. Bethune, and I wished to know where they arose. Now I am beginning to guess." For an instant Mr. Courtnay Fox seemed somewhat disconcerted; but he betrayed no anger.