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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    beginning to understand the reluctance to talk about it. A complicated case came into the Courts and Birn- strom was compelled to give evidence, from which it was obvious that he was interested in a certain money¬ lender with the non-committal name of Jones. Many of the cheques paid into the ‘X account’ were signed by somebody of that name. It was fairly obvious, now, where the second group of profits came from. Humphrey visited Chelsea, one afternoon, and had tea with Mrs. Brodick. She had paid her osteopath. Humphrey knew that, for he had handled the profits. The quarterly payments were rather difficult to put by, but so far she had managed to do it. The man who came to collect the money wasn’t like “dear Mr. Birnstrom,” he was a blustering, rough man, who frightened her. Once she had been a day or two behind, and really . . . sometimes she wondered if it wouldn’t be nicer to sell some of her things and pay off the debt. . . . But the agreement was rather a hard one, she thought. Humphrey realized that it must have been, if two grasping hands had to be satisfied. And her china . . . then, too, the house : she had lived in it as long as she could remem¬ ber. It seemed rather unkind, at her time of life, too. Humphrey began to realize that something would have to be done about it. Already he had had two serious quarrels with Birnstrom, one because of Sylvia and the other over an item in the accounts. Such episodes were emphasized by the fact that Birnstrom made no effort to control his temper or modulate his voice and Humphrey realized that the two typists heard a good deal of what was going on. Flo, who had been somewhat neglected lately and knew the reason, made this quite clear to Humphrey. “I only hope that one day you’ll give him