Barry Pain

“ An old lawyer doesn't like to be shown that he's in the wrong by a young lawyer—and that's had to happen now and again. We are not intimate, you understand?"
"Yes; so far the problem presents no difficulties."
"You wait a bit. I had never expected old Higgs to send us a wedding present. The association is almost entirely a business one, and although Higgs isn't mean exactly, he doesn't much like spending money. ”

“ The necklace was stolen, of course, and you have told Higgs that it wasn't. He'll look for it when the presents are displayed at your reception. He'll expect your wife to wear it when you dine at his house. You'll make one lying excuse after another, and in the end you'll be found out. ”

“ He seemed to think that no one had ever been engaged before, and that he, personally, with some assistance from Miss Lessing, had invented marriage. Many men get similar ideas at such times; a baseless conviction that they are quite extraordinary comes over them and, as I say, renders them unfit for masculine society. ”

“ Funnily enough, he had one played off him on the day of the reception. A bogus telephone message or something of that kind. However, it's all right now. We are dining there to-morrow."
"But how did he come to have the necklace to give you?" I asked. ”

“ He sent the necklace and it was stolen. And a pretty idiot you've made of yourself, and the dickens of a mess you've got into!"
James got rather fretful. "Well, I must think what to do. It's no good consulting you. You never seem to be able to suggest anything."
•⁠•⁠•⁠•⁠•
At the wedding reception Higgs's empty case formed part of the contents of a locked show-table. The case was closed, but not fastened.
Higgins remarked it and was not pleased.
"Those pearls of mine weren't fit to be seen, eh?" he said to James. ”