proof of their habitual truthfulness of mind. In common justice he must
own that it was very dreadful for two such truthful people to have a son
as untruthful as he knew himself to be.

"Believing that a son of your mother and myself would be incapable of
falsehood I at once assumed that some tramp had picked the watch up and
was now trying to dispose of it."

This to the best of my belief was not accurate. Theobald's first
assumption had been that it was Ernest who was trying to sell the watch,
and it was an inspiration of the moment to say that his magnanimous mind
had at once conceived the idea of a tramp.

"You may imagine how shocked I was when I discovered that the watch had
been brought for sale by that miserable woman Ellen"--here Ernest's heart
hardened a little, and he felt as near an approach to an instinct to turn
as one so defenceless could be expected to feel; his father quickly
perceived this and continued, "who was turned out of this house in
circumstances which I will not pollute your ears by more particularly
describing.

"I put aside the horrid conviction which was beginning to dawn upon me,
and assumed that in the interval between her dismissal and her leaving
this house, she had added theft to her other sin, and having found your
watch in your bedroom had purloined it. It even occurred to me that you
might have missed your watch after the woman was gone, and, suspecting
who had taken it, had run after the carriage in order to recover it; but
when I told the shopman of my suspicions he assured me that the person
who left it with him had declared most solemnly that it had been given
her by her master's son, whose property it was, and who had a perfect
right to dispose of it.

"He told me further that, thinking the circumstances in which the watch
was offered for sale somewhat suspicious, he had insisted upon the
woman's telling him the whole story of how she came by it, before he
would consent to buy it of her.

"He said that at first--as women of that stamp invariably do--she tried
prevarication, but on being threatened that she should at once be given
into custody if she did not tell the whole truth, she described the way
in which you had run after the carriage, till as she said you were black
in the face, and insisted on giving her all your pocket money, your knife
and your watch. She added that my coachman John--whom I shall instantly
discharge--was witness to the whole transaction. N