Now that he was actually there he began to dislike the thought of the work before him, and to doubt whether after all his attack would be as brilliant in reality as in imagination. Rather dismally he made a hasty breakfast and then set off through the wet, dingy streets to the shop where Darnell was at present employed. To his relief he found that it was not a very large one, and, on entering, discovered the man he sought, behind the counter and quite alone. As he approached him he watched his face keenly; Darnell was a rather good-looking man, dark, pale, eminently respectable; he looked up civilly at the supposed customer,—then, catching sight of Roy, he turned a shade paler and gave an involuntary start of surprise.
“Mr. Robert!” he stammered.
“Yes, Darnell; I see you know what I have come for,” said Roy quietly. “It was certainly a very strange, a most extraordinary coincidence that Mr. Falck should, unknown to himself, have had another five-pound note in his pocket that day last June, but it has been fully explained. Now I want your explanation.”
“Sir!” gasped Darnell; “I don’t understand you; I—I am at a loss—”
“Come, don’t tell any more lies about it,” said Roy impatiently. “We knew now that you must have taken it, for no one else was present. Only confess the truth and you shall not be prosecuted; you shall not lose your situation here. What induced you to do it?”
“Don’t be hard on me, sir,” stammered the man. “I assure you I’ve bitterly regretted it many a time.”
“Then why did you not make a clean breast of it to my father?” said Roy. “You might have known that he would never be hard on you.”
“I wish I had,” said Darnell, in great distress; “I wish to God I had, sir, for it’s been a miserable business from first to last. But I was in debt, and there was nothing but ruin before me, and I thought of my wife who was ill, and I knew that the disgrace would kill her.”
“So you went and disgraced yourself still more,” said Roy hotly. “You tried to ruin another man instead of yourself.”
“But he wasn’t turned off,” said Darnell. “And they put it all on his illness, and it seemed as if, after all, it would not hurt him so much. It was a great temptation, and when I had once given way to it there seemed no turning back.”