“Be quiet, Joe! You are laughing, sir! Do you think it is a laughing matter?”
“Well, I don’t know,” said bold Tod. “It was cleverly done.”
Up rose the pater in a passion. Vowing vengeance against the swindlers who went about the world, got up in good clothes and a moustache; and heartily promising the absent and unconscious Cripp to be down upon him if he did not speedily run the man to earth.
And that’s how Mrs. Todhetley lost the other earring.
IX.
A TALE OF SIN.
Part the First.
If I don’t relate this quite as usual, and it is found to be different from what I generally write, it is because I know less about it than others know. The history is Duffham’s; not mine. And there are diaries in it, and all kinds of foreign things. That is, foreign to me. Duffham holds all the papers, and has lent them to me to use. It came about in this way.