"How was it he did not apply to me?" asked Richard.
"Well--had you not, just about that time, assisted your brother Edmund in some scrape of his own?"
Richard North nodded.
"Just so. He said he had not the face to apply to you so soon again; should be ashamed of himself. Well, to go on, Mr. Richard North. I gave him the money on the bill; and when it became due, neither he nor Alexander could meet it: so I agreed to renew it. Only one day after that, the anonymous letter found its way to Dallory Hall."
"You are sure of that?"
"Certain. The bill was renewed on the 30th of April; here, in this very room. Mr. North received the letter on the 1st of May."
"It was so. By the evening post."
"So that, if the transaction got wind through that renewing, the writer did not lose much time about it."
"Well now, Mr. Dale, in what way could that transaction have got wind, and who heard of it?"
"I never spoke of it to a human being," impetuously cried the lawyer. And Richard North again felt sure that he spoke the truth.