"
He turned as pale as ashes, and pushed his chair two or three
feet away from me.
"You have asked me to tell you, sir, who has taken your money," I
went on. "If you insist on my giving you an answer--"
"I do insist," he said, faintly. "Who has taken it?"
"Your wife has taken it," I said, very quietly, and very
positively at the same time.
He jumped out of the chair as if I had put a knife into him, and
struck his fist on the table so heavily that the wood cracked
again.
"Steady, sir," says I. "Flying into a passion won't help you to
the truth."
"It's a lie!" says he, with another smack of his fist on the
table--"a base, vile, infamous lie! How dare you--"
He stopped, and fell back into the chair again, looked about him
in a bewildered way, and ended by bursting out crying.
"When your better sense comes back to you, sir," says I, "I am
sure you will be gentleman enough to make an apology for the
language you have just used. In the meantime, please to listen,
if you can, to a word of explanation. Mr. Sharpin has sent in a
report to our inspector of the most irregular and ridiculous
kind, setting down not only all his own foolish doings and
sayings, but the doings and sayings of Mrs. Yatman as well. In
most cases, such a document would have been fit only for the
waste paper basket; but in this particular case it so happens
that Mr.
Pages:
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371