A valid defence would have availed him naught.
David entered.
"I just seized an opportunity--" he commenced eagerly, but Brett levelled his cigar at him as if it were a revolver.
"You want to tell me," he cried, "that before you were two hours in Portsmouth you ascertained Frazer's address from an old friend.

You caught the next train for London, went to his lodgings, encountered a nagging landlady, and found that your cousin had taken his overcoat to the pawnbroker's to raise money for his fair to Stowmarket You drove frantically to Liverpool Street, interviewed a smart platform inspector, and he told you--" "That all I had to do was to ask Brett, and he would not only give me a detailed history of my own actions, but produce the very man he sent me in search of," interrupted David, laughing.

Nothing the barrister said or did could astonish him now.
"What has upset you ?" he went on.

"I hope I made no mistakes." "None.

Your conduct has been irreproachable.