MARY

How did he trace you here?

JOHN

O, got the address at the office.  Briggs and Cater won’t let theirs be known.  Not got such a smart little house, I expect.

MARY

I don’t like letting people in that you don’t know where they come from.

JOHN

O, he comes from the East.

MARY

Yes, I—­I know.  But the East doesn’t seem quite to count, somehow, as the proper sort of place to come from, does it, dear?

JOHN

No.

MARY

It’s not like Sydenham or Bromley, some place you can put your finger on.

JOHN

Perhaps just for once, I don’t think there’s any harm in him.

MARY

Well, just for once.  But we can’t make a practice of it.  And you don’t want to be thinking of business on a Sunday, your only day off.

JOHN

O, it isn’t business, you know.  He only wants to say thank you.

MARY

I hope he won’t say it in some queer Eastern way.  You don’t know what these people. . . .

JOHN

O, no.  Show him up, Liza.

LIZA

As you like, mum.
[Exit.]

MARY

And you gave him fifty pounds?

JOHN

Well, old Briggs agreed to it.  So I suppose that’s what he got.  Cater paid him.

MARY

It seems a lot of money.  But I think, as the man is actually coming up the stairs, I’m glad he’s got something to be grateful for.

[Enter Ali, shown in by Liza.]

ALI

Protector of the Just.

JOHN

O, er—­yes.  Good evening.

ALI

My soul was parched and you bathed it in rivers of gold.

JOHN

O, ah, yes.

ALI

Wherefore the name Briggs, Cater, and Beal shall be magnified and called blessed.

JOHN