Tempest obeyed.
“Is it a fact that you are in debt to this extent?”
“Yes, sir—more.”
“You are aware—”
Here I could stand it no longer, but sprang to my feet and shouted,—
“Please, sir, it’s my fault!”
Everybody turned to me in amazement, as well they might.
“Your fault, Jones iv.?—come forward and explain.”
“I mean,” said or rather shouted I, speaking while I walked up the room, “it’s my fault you got that bill, sir. I don’t know how you got it, but it wasn’t meant to get to you, really. I must have dropped it. I—I—was going—to try—to get it paid for him, sir. Really—”
Tempest gave me a glare that knocked all the spirit out of me. What business had I, it seemed to demand, to meddle in his private affairs?