“I won’t stop it unless there’s good reason, though I think it’s gone on long enough. What began it?”
“No-thank-you charged Penn with—”
“Who is No-thank-you?” asked Whalley.
“Young Evson, then,” said Mackworth sulkily, “charged Penn with bagging a scent-bottle from the old woman’s basket, and then he was impudent, so Wilton was going to pitch into him.”
“And couldn’t manage it, apparently,” said Whalley; “come, you two, shake hands now.”
Charlie, after a moment’s hesitation, frankly held out his hand; but Wilton said, “He’d no right to accuse a Noelite falsely as he did.”
“It wasn’t falsely,” said Charlie; “I saw him take it, and a horrid shame it was.”
“Is one of your bottles missing, Mrs Hart?” asked Whalley.
“Yes, sir; but now young Master Evson has paid for it, and I don’t want no more fighting about it, sir, please.”
“Well, my good woman, there’s something for you,” said Henderson, giving her a shilling; “and I hope nobody will treat you so badly again; you’d better go now. And now, Penn, if you didn’t take the bottle, of course you won’t mind being searched?”