‘Where is he?’ asked Mr. White.
‘He may be able to explain’—courtesy and pity made the General add.
‘No, no,’ burst out the mother. ‘He knows nothing of it. Mr. Stebbing, can’t you stand up for your own son?’
‘Perhaps,’ began the poor man, his tone faltering with a terrible anxiety, but his wife exclaimed hastily—
‘He never saw nor heard of it. I put it in the fire.’
There was a general hush, broken by Mr. Stebbing saying slowly—
‘You—put—it—in—the—fire.’
‘Yes; I saw those disreputable-looking boys put it into the box. I wasn’t going to have that bold girl sending billy-doos on the sly to my son.’
‘Under these circumstances,’ drily said Sir Jasper, ‘I presume that you will think it expedient to withdraw the prosecution.’
‘Certainly, certainly,’ said Mr. Stebbing, in the tone of one delivered from great alarm. ‘I will write at once to my solicitor at Avoncester.’ Then turning on his wife, ‘How was it that I never heard this before, and you let me go and make a fool of myself?’