“My dear Sir Brook, if your memory were a little better you would remember that you had once to apologize for that charge, and avow it was totally unfounded.”
“It is untrue, sir; and you know it is untrue. I declared I would produce a document before three or four of your brother officers, and it was stolen from me on the night before the meeting.”
“I remember that explanation, and the painful impression your position excited at the time; but really I have no taste for going back over a long-past period. I 'm not old enough, I suppose, to care for these reminiscences. Will you allow me to take my leave of you?”
“No, sir; you shall hear me out: It may possibly be to your own advantage to bestow a little time upon me. You are fond of compromises,—as you ought to be, for your life has been a series of them: now I have one to propose to you. Let Trafford have back his letters, and you shall hear of this charge no more.”
“Really, sir, you must form a very low estimate of my intelligence, or you would not have made such a proposition; or probably,” added he, with a sneer, “you have been led away by the eminence of the position you occupy at this moment to make this demand.”
Fossbrooke started at the boldness of this speech, and looked about him, and probably remembered for the first time since the interview began that he was a prisoner. “A few days—a few hours, perhaps—will see me free,” said the old man, haughtily. “I know too well the difficulties that surround men in times like these to be angry or impatient at a mistake whose worst consequences are a little inconvenience.”
“I own, sir, I was grieved to think you could have involved yourself in such a scheme.”
“Nothing of the kind, sir. You were only grieved to think that there could be no solid foundation for the charge against me. It would be the best tidings you could hear to learn that I was to leave this for the dock, with the convict hulk in the distance; but I forget I had promised myself not to discuss my own affairs with you. What say you to what I have proposed?”
“You have proposed nothing, Sir Brook,—at least nothing serious, since I can scarcely regard as a proposition the offer not to renew a charge which broke down once before for want of evidence.”
“What if I have that evidence? What if I am prepared to produce it? Ay, sir, you may look incredulous if you like. It is not to a man of your stamp I appeal to be believed on my word; but you shall see the document,—you shall see it on the same day that a jury shall see it.”