Reluctant sinners / by Sidney Fairway.

  • Fairway, Sidney, 1879-1947.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reluctant sinners / by Sidney Fairway. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “Better still,” he commented. “Drink and smoke ?” “In moderation.” “Well. We can’t have any smoking here . . . not yet. A house on fire may be all right, or it mayn’t. It all depends.” The big man cradled his massive chin in two podgy hands and submitted his visitor to an embarrassing scrutiny. “You’ll do,” he said, at last. “Subject to refer¬ ences, of course, subject to references. Accounts and all that. Not complicated, but important, very important.” He swung his chair round and pointed to a second door. “That’s your room. It has two doors. I keep this one locked, the other leads into the office. But leave the girls alone, leave the girls alone. Safest in the long run.” “You haven’t told me the salary.” “Screw . . . screw. . . . No highfalutin non¬ sense here. Three fifty a year, possibly more, if you know how to find the jam in a doughnut. Ha, ha !” Once again Humphrey was tempted to go. Was the man mad or merely eccentric ? “What is the nature of the work ?” he asked. Suddenly Mr. Birnstrom became serious. “I’m an agent,” he said. “There are people in the world, Mr. Bardon, who are constitutionally unable to pay their bills. It isn’t vice, they simply can’t do it. There are a corresponding number of people who are pre¬ vented, from one cause or another, from making them pay—doctors, for instance—can’t sue . . . work too intimate. . . . Impossible to ask a lady to pay when you’ve only seen her in her nightdress. Patient’s scared ... go elsewhere. Butcher can’t sue parson. Generation of vipers, hypocrites, no more recommendations. Lawyers, even, come to me. Funny that ! Very. And why ?” M