“You credit us with more energy, Miss Baxter, than we possess. I can assure you that if you had come here at ten or eleven o’clock with the documents, I should have been compelled to purchase them from you. However, that is all past and done with, and there is no use in our saying anything more about it. I am willing to take all the blame for our defeat on my shoulders, but there are some other things I am not willing to do, and perhaps you are in a position to clear up a little misunderstanding that has arisen in this office. I suppose I may take it for granted that you overheard the conversation which took place between Mr. Alder and myself in this room yesterday afternoon?”
“Well,” said Miss Baxter, for the first time in some confusion, “I can assure you that I did not come here with the intention of listening to anything. I came into the next room by myself for the purpose of getting to see you as soon as possible. While not exactly a member of the staff of the Evening Graphite, that paper nevertheless takes about all the work I am able to do, and so I consider myself bound to keep my eyes and ears open on its behalf wherever I am.”
“Oh, I don’t want to censure you at all,” said Hardwick; “I merely wish to be certain how the thing was done. As I said, I am willing to take the blame entirely on my own shoulders. I don’t think I should have made use of information obtained in that way myself; still, I am not venturing to find fault with you for doing so.”
“To find fault with me!” cried Miss Jennie somewhat warmly, “that would be the pot calling the kettle black indeed. Why, what better were you? You were bribing a poor man to furnish you with statistics, which he was very reluctant to let you have; yet you overcame his scruples with money, quite willing that he should risk his livelihood, so long as you got the news. If you ask me, I don’t see very much difference in our positions, and I must say that if two men take the risk of talking aloud about a secret, with a door open leading to another room, which may be empty or may be not, then they are two very foolish persons.”
“Oh, quite so, quite so,” answered Hardwick soothingly. “I have already disclaimed the critical attitude. The point I wish to be sure of is this—you overheard the conversation between Alder and myself?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Would you be able to repeat it?”
“I don’t know that I could repeat it word for word, but I could certainly give the gist of it.”
“Would you have any objection to telling a gentleman whom I shall call in a moment, as nearly as possible what Alder said and what I said? I may add that the gentleman I speak of is Mr. Hempstead, and he is practically the proprietor of this paper. There has arisen between Mr. Alder and myself a slight divergence of memory, if I may call it so, and it seems that you are the only person who can settle the dispute.”
“I am perfectly willing to tell what I heard to anybody.”