She
held out an eager hand.
"Have you got the change?" she asked a little breathlessly, laying one
of the twenty-dollar bills on the table.
"Change? What'd I want to have change for? I only see two twenties
there," Dr. Merkle answered brightly.
Charity paused, disconcerted. "I thought... you said it was five dollars
a visit...."
"For YOU, as a favour--I did. But how about the responsibility and the
insurance? I don't s'pose you ever thought of that? This pin's worth a
hundred dollars easy. If it had got lost or stole, where'd I been when
you come to claim it?"
Charity remained silent, puzzled and half-convinced by the argument,
and Dr. Merkle promptly followed up her advantage. "I didn't ask you for
your brooch, my dear. I'd a good deal ruther folks paid me my regular
charge than have 'em put me to all this trouble."
She paused, and Charity, seized with a desperate longing to escape, rose
to her feet and held out one of the bills.
"Will you take that?" she asked.
"No, I won't take that, my dear; but I'll take it with its mate, and
hand you over a signed receipt if you don't trust me.
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