Will you?'
'I meant to give you no offence,' said Hugh. 'I don't know what to say.
You catch me up so very short.'
'You will be caught up much shorter, my good friend--infinitely
shorter--one of these days, depend upon it,' replied his patron calmly.
'By-the-bye, instead of wondering why you have been so long, my wonder
should be why you came at all. Why did you?'
'You know, master,' said Hugh, 'that I couldn't read the bill I found,
and that supposing it to be something particular from the way it was
wrapped up, I brought it here.'
'And could you ask no one else to read it, Bruin?' said Sir John.
'No one that I could trust with secrets, master. Since Barnaby Rudge
was lost sight of for good and all--and that's five years ago--I haven't
talked with any one but you.'
'You have done me honour, I am sure.'
'I have come to and fro, master, all through that time, when there was
anything to tell, because I knew that you'd be angry with me if I stayed
away,' said Hugh, blurting the words out, after an embarrassed silence;
'and because I wished to please you if I could, and not to have you go
against me. There. That's the true reason why I came to-night.
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