"I have to work so hard for my money, that when I have got it I prefer to invest it in something a little more reliable.

May I inquire the nature of your business with me ?" "I have come to see you, Mr.Fairfax," he said, speaking very impressively, and regarding me deliberately as he did so, "on rather a delicate subject.

Before I explain what it is, may I ask that you will treat what I am about to tell you as purely confidential ?" "My business is invariably a confidential one," I answered for the second time in two days.

"I venture to think that this room has heard more secrets than almost any other in England.

But though they say walls have ears, I have never heard it said that they have tongues." "It is sometimes a good thing that they have not," he replied.