Mr. Winthorne thought that the whole of it, to judge by present appearances, might not be an inconveniently prolonged period; but he did not say so. "What is your objection to speak?" he asked.
"You have put the same question about fifty times, Winthorne, and you'll never get any different answer from the one you have had already—that I don't choose to state it."
"I suppose you were not committing murder in another quarter of the town, were you?"
"I suppose I was not," equably returned Herbert.
"Then, failing that crime, there's no other in the decalogue that I'd not confess to, to save my life. Whether I was robbing a bank, or setting a church on fire, I'd tell it out rather than be hanged by the neck until I was dead."
"Ah, but I was not doing either," said Herbert.
"Then there's the less reason for your persisting in the observance of so much mystery."
"My doing so is my own business," returned Herbert.
"No, it is not your own business," objected Mr. Winthorne. "You assert that you are innocent of the crime with which you are charged——"
"I assert nothing but the truth," interrupted Herbert.