"You have come to pay?" said the chief clerk, as I showed him the note.
"Indeed I have not," said I. "On the contrary the Company should refund me the difference between first and third-class fare."
"Do you deny, then, that you travelled back from Epsom without a ticket?"
"Indeed I do."
"You will not deny, perhaps, that this is the card you handed the inspector with a promise to pay?"
I took the proffered card. I could not deny it, for the card was mine. I turned it over. There, faintly legible on the back in pencil, was the hieroglyph that the bookie had scrawled on it.
I explained to the clerk. I also explained to Selina when I got home. She, however, sticks to her original contention. She was not deceived. Fundamentally the man was honest. Only the expenses of his wife's long illness had caused him to deviate from the path of probity.