"Consent to leave you here alone."
"Bother! what's the row, and where's the danger, I should like to know? Who's Todd? Who am I? Gammon!"
Sir Richard shook his head, although Crotchet could not very well see him shake it, and after a pause he added—
"I don't suppose exactly that there is much danger, Crotchet, but, at all events, I don't like it said that I brought you into this place and then left you here."
"Bother!"
"You go and leave me."
"A likely joke that. No, I tell yer what it is, Sir Richard. You knows me and I knows you, so what does it matter what other folks say? Business is business I hope, and don't you believe that I'm going to be such a flat as to throw away my life upon such a fellow as Todd. I think I can do some good by staying here; if I can't I'll come away, but I don't think, in either case, that Todd will see me. If he does I shall, perhaps, be forced to nab him, and that, after all, is the worst that can come of it."
"Well, Crotchet, you shall have your own way."
"Good."
"I will return to the attic as soon as I conveniently can, and, let what will happen to you, remember that you are not deserted."