‘Who was the individual, practically stark naked, who came out of your house, in such singular fashion, at dead of night?’
‘Is that one of the facts with which you propose to tickle the public ear?’
‘Is that the only explanation which you have to offer?’
‘Proceed, for the present, with your indictment.’
‘I am not so unobservant as you appear to imagine. There were features about the episode which struck me forcibly at the time, and which have struck me more forcibly since. To suggest, as you did yesterday morning, that it was an ordinary case of burglary, or that the man was a lunatic, is an absurdity.’
‘Pardon me,—I did nothing of the kind.’
‘Then what do you suggest?’
‘I suggested, and do suggest, nothing. All the suggestions come from you.’
‘You went very much out of your way to beg me to keep the matter quiet. There is an appearance of suggestion about that.’
‘You take a jaundiced view of all my actions, Mr Atherton. Nothing, to me, could seem more natural.—However,—proceed.’