“i was always handy with my fingers.”
“And your father?”
“Kitty and I have fought hard to keep the truth from him—the truth would have broken his heart. Why the news of his son’s death nearly did, sir. And he has had so much trouble—so many losses too—and we have been for the last six months so very hard driven to live. Of late days father wished to sell this clock, but we would not let him—we were sure it had been stolen, and we hoped to find the owner some day.”
“But not like this, I suppose?”
“Oh! no, not like this. But when little Willie got very ill; when residence abroad for a few months might save him, the doctor said—it was only yesterday he told us that—father took the clock out of the house unknown to us, and—and came at once to you. He is so very impetuous, poor father.”
“Ah! is he? And who put the clock in working order, may I ask?”
“I did.”
“You!”
“I was brought up to the watch-making—I am rather clever at it, they say.”