"You are wrong, my dear sister," rejoined her brother. "I am perfectly willing to say how and where I got it; and in fact I told you before."
"Oh but, William!" exclaimed his sister, "I saw very well that you were only jesting. You did not, I am sure, intend me to give credence to that story?"
"Well for you that you are not a man, my pretty Blanche," answered Captain Delaware, shaking his hand at her good-humouredly, "I will repeat the same, word for word, to my father; and if he do not believe me, I will swear to it if he likes."
"Not I--not I, William!" said Sir Sidney. "Any thing that you assert in so solemn a manner, I will believe without any swearings however improbable it may be."
"Well then, my dear sir," replied Captain Delaware, "the fact is this: When I rose this morning, in looking about for something on my dressing-table, I found a paper parcel with my name written upon it; and, on opening it, saw the notes which I just now gave to that blackguard. There was no one thing in or about the parcel that could lead me to divine from whom or whence it came; but as it contained the precise sum required, and was addressed to myself, I could not doubt the purpose for which it was intended. I have a vague recollection, indeed, of seeing it lying there last night; but I was out of humour, and somewhat sick at heart, and took but little notice of any thing. However, it must have been there when I went to bed, for no one could have come into my room without my hearing them."
"Hum!" said Sir Sidney Delaware, with a smile. "Hum!" and, notwithstanding his promise of full faith in his son's account, it was evident he did not give credit to a word of it. "Well, well, William," he said, "we will not press you hard; though your grave face almost deserves that one should believe you."
"On my word, sir! On my honour!" reiterated Captain Delaware, "Every word that I tell you is true. This is very hard indeed that I am not to be believed even when I pledge my honour."
"Nay, nay!" said Sir Sidney. "If you bring your honour into the scrape, my dear boy, I suppose we must believe you. But you will not, I dare say, deny that you have some shrewd guess at how the money came there, or who sent it?"
"In regard to the person who sent it," answered Captain Delaware, a good deal mortified at doubts which he felt he did not deserve, "I have certainly a very strong suspicion, though I do not feel justified in naming the friend to whom my mind turns; but, as to how it came there, I am fully as ignorant as yourself or Blanche."
"Well, all I can say is, that the whole business is very extraordinary," replied Sir Sidney Delaware, more gravely than he had hitherto spoken. "Indeed, I know not which would seem the most strange, that such a large sum should be left in your room without your privity or knowledge; or that my son should so strongly assert, even in jest, what is not strictly true."