“Pardon me,” said the doctor, “but I still do not understand. What confession do you refer to?”
“Has not Mr Bickers communicated the contents of my son’s letter to him, written two days ago? He must have received it yesterday morning. In it my boy confessed that he, assisted by two others, had been the author of the outrage on Mr Bickers last term. He is deeply repentant, and wishes by this confession to put right all the mischief which has resulted from his act. But surely Mr Bickers has shown you the letter?”
“He has neither shown me it nor mentioned it.”
“Is it possible? My boy was so anxious and restless about the affair that I promised him to come down and see you; fully expecting that long before now you would have been made acquainted with everything. Would it trouble you to send for Mr Bickers?”
“Certainly,” said the doctor. Then, turning to Ainger and Railsford, he said, “Would you two come again later on? and on your way, Ainger, will you ask Mr Bickers to come here?”
“Excuse me, doctor,” said Mr Branscombe, “but I should much prefer if these two gentlemen remained. I believe, in fact, that—although I do not know them—they have come to see you on this same business that I have.”
“Perhaps, Railsford—” began the doctor, when his visitor broke in, “Railsford! Is this Railsford? Why, to be sure, now I look at you. How ungrateful you must have thought me! but you slipped away so suddenly that day when Mrs Branscombe and I arrived, that in our excitement and anxiety we scarcely had time to look at you; much less to thank you. Indeed, it was only lately my son told me how devotedly you had tended him; and it breaks his heart now to think that you, of all persons, have suffered almost more than anybody by what he did. Surely, sir, Mr Bickers showed you his letter?”
“No, I have not seen or heard of it,” said Railsford. “But I know what you say your son has now confessed; and have known it since the time of his illness. Dr Ponsford, I am at liberty now to explain myself; may I do so?”
“Certainly,” said the doctor sternly.
Railsford thereupon gave an account of the boy’s sudden illness, and of the accidental manner in which he had learned, from the boy’s delirious talk, of his own guilt and the guilt of his confederates.