“Excuse me,” said the Duke of Melford, “I think if Mr. er—Jones wishes to prove his identity as Mr. Jones he will admit that his actions will help. Now Lord Rochester was a very, shall we say, fastidious person, quiet in his actions.”
“Oh, was he,” said Jones, “that’s news.”
“Quiet, that is to say, in his movements—let it stand at that. Now my friend Collins said to me something about the eating of a document—”
Jones bristled. “Collins had no right to tell you that,” said he, “I told him that privately. When did he tell you that?”
“When I called, just after his interview with you—he did not say it in anyway offensively. In fact he seemed to admire you for your—energy and so forth.”
“Did you, in fact, eat a document?” asked Simms, with an air of bland interest.
“I did—and saved a very nasty situation, and a million of money.”
“What was the document?” asked Cavendish.
“A bill of exchange.”
“Now may I ask why you did that?” queried Simms.