arr, after all!"

But my indignation could not be restrained a moment longer. I had only
been kept silent by repeated signs from Marston, and now I broke out.

"And so, sir, you suspect my friend," I said, "and insult him in your
father's house by turning the key on him. You endeavor to throw
suspicion on a man who never injured you in the slightest degree. You
insult _me_ in insulting my friend, sir. Suspicion is not always such an
easy thing to shake off as it has been in this instance. I, on my side,
might ask what _you_ were doing walking about the passages in your socks
at four o'clock this morning? In your socks, sir, still in your evening
clothes--"

I had spoken it anger, not thinking much what I was saying, and I
stopped short, alarmed at the effect of my own words.

"I knew it! I knew it!" gasped Sir George, in his hoarse, suffocated
voice, and he fell back panting among his pillows.

Charles took his hand from his face, and looked hard at me with a
strange kind of smile.

"At any rate we are quits, Middleton," he said. "You have done it now,
and no mistake."

I did not quite see what I had done, but it soon became apparent.

"I knew it!" gasped out the sick man again; "I knew it from the first
moment that he tried to throw suspicion on Carr."

"Sir George," said Marston, gravely, "Charles made a mistake just now.
Do not you, on your side, make another. Come, Charles," turning to the
latter, who was now sitting erect, with flashing eyes, "tell us about
it. What were you doing when Middleton saw you?"

"I was coming up-stairs," said Charles, haughtily.

"From the library?" asked Sir George.

Charles bit his lip and remained silent.

I would not have spoken to him for a good deal at that moment. He looked
positively dangerous.

"From the library, of course," he said at last, controlling himself, and
speaking with something of his old careless manner, "laden with the
spoils of my midnight depredations. Parental fondness will supply all
minor details, no doubt; so, as the subject is a delicate one for me, I
will withdraw, that it may be discussed more fully in my absence."

"Stop, Charles," said Marston; "the case is too serious for banter of
this kind. My dear boy," he added, kindly, "I am glad to see you angry,
but nevertheless, you must condescend to explain. The longer you allow
suspicion to rest on yourself the longer it will be before it falls on
the right person. Come, what were you doing