'So I have. Sir,' said. Mr. Gamble, drily, stuffing his hands into his breeches' pockets, and staring straight at Toole with elevated eyebrows, and as the little doctor thought, with a very odd expression in his eyes.
'You have, Sir?'
'I have!' and then followed a little pause, and Mr. Gamble said—
'I did so, Sir, because there's no disputing it—and—and I think, Doctor Toole, I know something of my business.'
There was another pause, during which Toole, flushed and shocked, turned his gaze from Gamble to Nutter.
''Tis a true bill, then?' said Toole, scarcely above his breath, and very dismally.
A swarthy flush covered Nutter's dark face. The man was ashamed.
''Tis nigh eighteen years ago, Sir,' said Nutter embarrassed, as he well might be. 'I was a younger man, then, and was bit, Sir, as many another has been, and that's all.'
Toole got up, stood before the fire-place, and hung his head, with compressed lips, and there was a silence, interrupted by the hard man of the law, who was now tumbling over his papers in search of a document, and humming a tune as he did so.
'It may be a good move for Charles Nutter, Sir, but it looks very like a checkmate for poor Sally,' muttered Toole angrily.