My flesh began to creep all over from head to foot.
"I am shocked--I am horrified to say," Mr. Philip went on, "that
the suspicion affects your mistress in the first place, and you
in the second."
I shall not attempt to describe what I felt when he said that. No
words of mine, no words of anybody's, could give an idea of it.
What other men would have done in my situation I don't know. I
stood before Mr. Philip, staring straight at him, without
speaking, without moving, almost without breathing. If he or any
other man had struck me at that moment, I do not believe I should
have felt the blow.
"Both my brother and myself," said Mr. Philip, "have such
unfeigned respect for your mistress, such sympathy for her under
these frightful circumstances, and such an implicit belief in her
capability of proving her innocence, that we are desirous of
sparing her in this dreadful emergency as much as possible. For
those reasons, I have undertaken to come here with the persons
appointed to execute my brother's warrant--"
"Warrant, sir!" I said, getting command of my voice as he
pronounced that word--"a warrant against my mistress!"
"Against her and against you," said Mr. Philip. "The suspicious
circumstances have been sworn to by a competent witness, who has
declared on oath that your mistress is guilty, and that you are
an accomplice.
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