“I need say no more about them,” said Dr. O’Grady. “The Emperor, out of sheer kindness of heart, saved them from what might have been a very ugly scandal. I don’t want to drag the whole thing into the light of day; but if they insist upon the pursuit of the Emperor, I shall tell the truth so far as I know it, and the Emperor, when you catch him, will fill in the details.”
“There’s nothing,” said Mr. Dick, “absolutely nothing——”
“There may be nothing,” said Lord Manton; “but from the little I’ve heard I should say that Mrs. Dick will have a distinct grievance; and as for your aunt, Mr. Sanders—you know her better than I do, of course, but she doesn’t strike me as the kind of lady who will treat the doctor’s story as a mere trifle.”
“As to the police,” said Dr. O’Grady, “I don’t profess to explain exactly how they came here. Goddard seems to have given them some very peculiar orders, orders that won’t bear repeating. I don’t want to probe into the secrets of the force. I have a respect for Sergeant Farrelly; I used to have a respect for Goddard——”
“You won’t have any respect for him when you hear how he has treated me,” said Miss Blow.
“You hear that, Goddard?” said Dr. O’Grady. “Adeline Maud says you’ve been ill-treating her. That’s a thing I can’t and won’t stand from any man living, and if you make the smallest attempt to annoy the Emperor in any way, I’ll publish her story in the newspapers, and what’s more, I’ll hire the best barrister in Dublin to cross-examine you about the orders you gave to Sergeant Farrelly and Constable Cole.”
“What you suggest, then,” said Lord Manton, “is to leave the whole matter wrapped in a decent obscurity—to let the dead past bury its dead. I quite agree. None of us want our share in the proceedings of the last few days made public. But will Miss Blow consent to allow the man Red—it’s her phrase, doctor, not mine; so don’t be angry with it—to allow the man Red to escape scot free? After all, it was she who urged us on to have him hanged.”
“Adeline Maud,” said Dr. O’Grady, “has more sense than to quarrel with a man who has been paying me five pounds a day. He suggested four pounds at first; but he sprang it to a fiver the moment I made the suggestion.”
“Of course, if Miss Blow is satisfied——” said Lord Manton.