"Who cares what a Wylie says against a great old mercantile house of London City?"
"Very well, Mr. Penfolds," said Nancy, with one great final sob, and dried her eyes with her apron; and she did it with such an air, they both saw she was not going to shed another tear about the matter. "Very well; you are both against me; then I'll say no more. But I know what I know."
"And what do you know?" inquired Helen.
"Time will show," said Nancy, turning suddenly very dogged—"time will show."
Nothing more was to be got out of her after that; and Helen, soon after, made her a civil, though stiff, little speech; regretted the pain she had inadvertently caused her, and went away, leaving Mr. Penfold her address.
On her return home, she entered the whole adventure in her diary. She made a separate entry to this effect:
Mysterious.—My letter to Mr. Penfold at the office intercepted.
Wylie hints that he was bribed by Messrs. Wardlaw.
Nancy Rouse suspects that it was Arthur, and says time will show.
As for me, I can neither see why Wylie should scuttle the ship unless he was bribed by somebody, nor what Arthur or his father could gain by destroying that ship. This is all as dark as is that more cruel mystery which alone I care to solve.