“Do you hear, Mr. Ferrers?” said the doctor: “how came you to put that Key among Louis Mortimer's books?”
“I, sir—I never,” stammered Ferrers. “What should I want with it? What good could I get by it? Is it likely?”
“I am not arguing on the possibility of such an event, I simply wish to know if you did it?” said the doctor.
“I, sir—no,” exclaimed Ferrers, with an air of injured innocence. “If I had done it, why did he not accuse me at once, instead of remembering it all of a sudden?”
“Because I only just remembered that I saw you moving something towards me, and I am almost sure it was that book now—I think so,” replied Louis.
“You'd better be quite sure,” said Ferrers.
Dr. Wilkinson looked from one to the other, and his look might have made a less unprincipled youth fear to persist in so horrible a falsehood.
“Were you learning your lessons in the school-room yesterday afternoon, Mr. Ferrers, at the same time with Louis Mortimer?” Ferrers acknowledging this, Dr. Wilkinson sent for Mr. Witworth, and asked him if he had observed either Ferrers or Louis go into the study during the afternoon, and if he knew what each brought out with him. Mr. Witworth replied that both went in, but he did not know what for.
“I went in to get an atlas for Ferrers,” cried Louis, in great agitation.
“I got the atlas myself, Mortimer, you know,” said Ferrers.