'Nothing whatever,' said he.
'Well, so be it,' said Alaric; 'but the fact is, the money has been withdrawn.'
'I don't doubt that in the least,' said Undy. 'I am not now going to argue whether the fault has been most mine or yours,' continued Alaric.
'Well, that is kind of you,' said Undy, 'considering that you are the girl's trustee, and that I have no more to do with it than that fellow in the wig there.'
'I wish at any rate you would let me explain myself,' said Alaric, who felt that his patience was fast going, and who could hardly resist the temptation of seizing his companion by the throat, and punishing him on the spot for his iniquity.
'I don't prevent you, my dear fellow—only remember this: I will not permit you to assert, without contradicting you, that I am responsible for Clem's fortune. Now, go on, and explain away as hard as you like.'
Alaric, under these circumstances, found it not very easy to put what he had to say into any words that his companion would admit. He fully intended at some future day to thrust Scott's innocence down his throat, and tell him that he was not only a thief, but a mean, lying, beggarly thief. But the present was not the time. Too much depended on his inducing Undy to act with him.
'Ten thousand pounds has at any rate been taken.'
'That I won't deny.'
'And half that sum has been lent to you.'