“Not at all,” said Mack. “Most natural thing in the world. Anything you want—it’s at your service.”
“It must be wonderful to have such power,” says Fruen.
“I’ve not as much power as I could wish,” says Mack. “There’s that burglary, for instance. I can’t find out who did it.”
“It was really too bad, that business,” broke in the priest. “I see you have offered a heavy reward, even to the thief himself, and still he won’t confess.”
Mack shook his head.
“Oh, but it’s the blackest ingratitude to steal from you,” says Fruen.
Mack took up the cue. “Since you mention it, Frue, I will say I had not expected it. No, indeed, I had not. I have not treated my people so badly as to deserve it.”
Here the priest put in, “A thief will steal where there is most to steal. And in this case he knew where to go.”
The priest, in all innocence, had found the very word. Mack felt easier at once. Putting it like that made the whole thing less of a disgrace to himself.