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Page 92
"'You are the same Percy Trevelyan who has had so
distinguished a career and won a great prize lately?'
said he.
"I bowed.
"'Answer me frankly,' he continued, 'for you will find
it to your interest to do so. You have all the
cleverness which makes a successful man. Have you the
tact?'
"I could not help smiling at the abruptness of the
question.
"'I trust that I have my share,' I said.
"'Any bad habits? Not drawn towards drink, eh?'
"'Really, sir!' I cried.
"'Quite right! That's all right! But I was bound to
ask. With all these qualities, why are you not in
practice?'
"I shrugged my shoulders.
"'Come, come!' said he, in his bustling way. 'It's
the old story. More in your brains than in your
pocket, eh? What would you say if I were to start you
in Brook Street?'
"I stared at him in astonishment.
"'Oh, it's for my sake, not for yours,' he cried.
'I'll be perfectly frank with you, and if it suits you
it will suit me very well. I have a few thousands to
invest, d'ye see, and I think I'll sink them in you.'
"'But why?' I gasped.
"'Well, it's just like any other speculation, and
safer than most.'
"'What am I to do, then?'
"'I'll tell you. I'll take the house, furnish it, pay
the maids, and run the whole place. All you have to
do is just to wear out your chair in the
consulting-room. I'll let you have pocket-money and
everything. Then you hand over to me three quarters
of what you earn, and you keep the other quarter for
yourself.'
"This was the strange proposal, Mr. Holmes, with which
the man Blessington approached me. I won't weary you
with the account of how we bargained and negotiated.
It ended in my moving into the house next Lady-day,
and starting in practice on very much the same
conditions as he had suggested. He came himself to
live with me in the character of a resident patient.
His heart was weak, it appears, and he needed constant
medical supervision. He turned the two best rooms of
the first floor into a sitting-room and bedroom for
himself. He was a man of singular habits, shunning
company and very seldom going out. His life was
irregular, but in one respect he was regularity
itself. Every evening, at the same hour, he walked
into the consulting-room, examined the books, put down
five and three-pence for every guinea that I had
earned, and carried the rest off to the strong-box in
his own room.
"I may say with confidence that he never had occasion
to regret his speculation. From the first it was a
success. A few good cases and the reputation which I
had won in the hospital brought me rapidly to the
front, and during the last few years I have made him a
rich man.
"So much, Mr. Holmes, for my past history and my
relations with Mr. Blessington. It only remains for
me now to tell you what has occurred to bring me here
to-night.
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