"We are usually short-sighted," said Isaacson, touching his spectacles, "I am myself. Mr. Portman worked in glasses always, but if you met him in the street you would probably see him without them."
"Ah, you are remembering that he did not wear them the night you met him in Finsbury Pavement," said Quarles, "that is probably why he did not see you."
"He happened to be wearing them that night," Isaacson returned. "I believe he did see me, but was in too much of a hurry to stop."
"Small men have to put up with many things from big ones," said Isaacson humbly.
The professor treated him to a short dissertation on the equality of man, and then we left.
"Honest, I think, so far as he goes," said Quarles, "but he is desperately afraid of being drawn too deeply into this affair. He couldn't afford to be questioned too closely about his business, Wigan."
It had been thought advisable to keep the clerk at his post for the present, and he was quite ignorant of the fact that he was watched both during his business and leisure hours. His own importance rather impressed him at this time, and Quarles soon succeeded in making him talkative, but, as far as I could see, very little of what he said was worth particular note.
"I think Mr. Portman would have been wise if he had confided more in you," said Quarles, after talking to him for some time.
"When he came in that afternoon he stood in the doorway there and talked to you?"
"He was telling me about some papers he would want in the morning. Very snappy he was, I can tell you."
"The weather, possibly. It was foggy and unpleasant."
"He was usually unpleasant, no matter what the weather was. He paid me fairly well, or I shouldn't have stayed with him as I have done."
"Yet, when he went out later that evening, he stopped in the doorway to say good night."
"He did, and you might have knocked me down with a feather," said the youth. "I don't remember his ever doing such a thing before. I'd put some letters which had come during the afternoon on his table, and the news in them must have been good. He'd had some worrying business on hand, I know."
"That would certainly account for his cordiality," said Quarles. "Really, I sympathize with you. Practically, I suppose, you have little to do but answer the door when the bell rings."