Sir Arthur looked narrowly at the face of unpleasant cunning before him, and then he said very quietly: “I am sorry to have to tell you, Mr. Gedge, that your niece claims the picture as her property.”
The old man was prepared for a development which he had been able to foresee. “I am afraid she is a very wicked girl,” he said, in the tone of a known good man whose feelings are deeply wounded. “I ask you, sir, is it likely that a thing of such immense value would belong to her?”
Sir Arthur had to agree that it was not, yet remembering his daughter’s deep conviction on the subject, he was careful to assert June’s claim.
“Moonshine, I assure you, sir.”
Sir Arthur, however, did not regard this as conclusive. In the light of what had happened he felt it to be his duty to seek a clear proof of the picture’s ownership; therefore he now turned to William and told him that the girl in the Hospital declared that he had given her the Van Roon. A plain statement of fact was demanded, and in the face of so direct an appeal the young man did not hesitate to give one. Originally the picture was his property, but a week ago he had given it to his master’s niece.
“What have you to say to that, Mr. Gedge?” asked Sir Arthur.
The heart of William seemed to miss a beat while he waited painfully for the answer to this question. To one of his primitive nature, his whole life, past, present and future seemed to turn upon the old man’s next words; and a kind of slow agony overcame him, as he realized what these words were in all their cynical wickedness.
“The Van Roon is mine, sir,” said S. Gedge Antiques, in a voice, strong, definite and calm. “It was bought with my money.”
Sir Arthur fixed upon the stupefied William an interrogating eye. In his own mind he felt sure that this must be the fact of the matter, yet it was hard to believe that a young man who seemed to be openness itself was deliberately lying. “What do you say?” he asked gently.
William was too shocked to say anything. His master took a full advantage of the pause which followed. “Come, boy,” he said, in a tone of kindly expostulation, “you know as well as I do that you were given the money to buy a few things down in Suffolk in the ordinary way of business on your week’s holiday and that this little thing was one of your purchases.”