tcher, for I can't
walk."

"We sha'n't take you without doctor's orders, if you're ill, sir."

"Well, he won't give you the order, so you'd better leave your warrant,
and run away and play."

"I have to warn you, sir," said the officer pompously, "that anything you
say will be taken down in evidence against you."

"Well, take that down in evidence--what I've just said. You're a smart
lot to look everywhere except in the most likely place. Take that down as
well."

"We don't want any impudence. You're our prisoner; we shall put an
officer in the house."

"Well, all I ask is that you won't make things more unpleasant for my
mother and father than is absolutely necessary. Now, get out. I'm reading
an interesting book. If you should see Mr. Ormsby, you can give him my
kind regards, and tell him he's a bigger cad than I thought, and, when
I'm free, I'll repeat the dose I gave him at our club dinner. Say I'm
sorry I didn't rob his bank of seventy thousand instead of seven
thousand."

"Do I understand, sir," said the officer, taking out his notebook, "that
you confess to defrauding the bank of seven thousand dollars?"

"Oh, certainly! I'll confess to anything you like, only get out."

Netty had taken refuge in the drawing-room, where she locked herself in,
inspired with an unreasoning terror, and a dread of seeing her brother
handcuffed and carried out of the house. The rector and his wife stood
face to face in the study, with the table between them.

"For the last time, Mary, I implore you to speak." He raised his hand,
and his eyes blazed with a light new and strange to her.

"I tell you, there is no need for me to speak, John. This can all be
settled in a few hours, when I have denounced father to his face, and
compelled him to retract."

"When you have compelled him to add lie to lie. Mary--wife--I charge you
to speak, and save me the necessity of denouncing you."

"John, you are mad. Trouble has turned your brain. What are you saying?"

"I am no longer your husband. I am your judge."

"Oh, John, John--give me time--give me a little time. I promise you, I
will set everything right in a few hours."

The rector looked at the clock. "At half-past six, I go to conduct the
evening service--my last service in the church. This is the end of my
priesthood. I preach my last sermon to-night. Unless you have surrendered
yourself to justice before I go into the pulpit for my sermon, I shall
make public confession o