Just. Yes, yes, yes, child—nonsense! it’s all a lie from beginning to end. A man who tells one lie will tell a hundred. All a lie! all a lie!
Old M. If your worship would give me leave—
Just. Sir, it does not signify—it does not signify! I’ve said it, I’ve said it, and that’s enough to convince me, and I’ll tell you more; if my Lord Chief Justice of England told it to me, I would not believe it—that’s poz!
Lucy (still playing with the box). But how comes the box here, I wonder?
Just. Pshaw! pshaw! pshaw! darling. Go to your dolls, darling, and don’t be positive—go to your dolls, and don’t talk of what you don’t understand. What can you understand, I want to know, of the law?
Lucy. No, papa, I didn’t mean about the law, but about the box; because, if the man had taken it, how could it be here, you know, papa?
Just. Hey, hey, what? Why, what I say is this, that I don’t dispute that that box, that you hold in your hands, is a box; nay, for aught I know, it may be a tobacco-box—but it’s clear to me that if they left the box they did not take the money; and how do you dare, sir, to come before Justice Headstrong with a lie in your mouth; recollect yourself—I’ll give you time to recollect yourself.
(A pause.)
Just. Well, sir; and what do you say now about the box?
Old M. Please, your worship, with submission, I can say nothing but what I said before.