The House of Mammon by Fred M. White

That knowledge is power was an axiom in which Mr. Rufus Sebag firmly believed. Not that he regarded it from a lofty intellectual level; on the contrary, his knowledge was more or less personal. He liked to know about people and their ways--to hear their little secrets. He had risen from the gutter by such methods; by means of a cunningly concocted story he had compelled his late employer to give him his articles and thus had become a distinguished ornament of the law. That he would go far and make money was now certain. It had been a good day for him when John Blaydon's dirty work came his way. It was a glorious opportunity for finding out things. But, curiously enough, he had never seen John Blaydon.

Everything had been done by correspondence, and all accounts were settled with one of Blaydon's clerks. Sebag bided his time, knowing that it would come some day. Certainly he must have pleased Blaydon, or the delicate matter of Lady Laurisdale's debt had never been placed in his hands.