'Connection? Good Heavens! There is a solid chain of evidence, without a single weak point.'
'Is there indeed? Well, we will not ask for the production of your chain. Let us take it for granted. Go on to the next point.'
'I wish, young gentleman, I wish most sincerely, for the credit of yourself, and for the happiness of the unfortunate girl who has given you her heart, that my chain was of glass, to fly into a thousand fragments. But it is not. Everything is complete. The motive: the tempter: the conspiracy: the working out: the apparent success—everything complete. The motive—want of money.'
'Want of money? Well, I was pretty badly off. That cannot be denied. Go on.'
'You wanted money—both of you—wanted money. In ninety cases out of a hundred, this is the cause—wanted money. So you went and did it. Always the way in the City—they want money—and so they go and do it—go and do it.'
'I see. Well, we need not have the tempter and the rest of it. They can wait. Let us go on to the advice.'
'Just so. What I came to say is this. You are in a devil of a mess, young gentleman: the whole job is found out: there's no use in trying to brazen it out. Best come down at once.'
George nodded with as much good humour as he could assume under the circumstances.
'Down at once,' Sir Samuel repeated. 'It is always best in the long run. In your case, there is every reason why a scandal should be avoided. The thing hasn't got into the papers: we are only yet in the first stage of finding out what has been actually stolen: it has not been a case in which the police could help. Now my brother is not a vindictive man. I, for my own part, don't want my wife's brother, to say nothing of you, convicted of forgery. Eh? Beastly thing, to go down to the City in the morning and to hear them whispering, "That's his wife's brother in the papers to-day. Lagged for fifteen years." Fifteen years for certain, it will be, my fine fellow.'
'Fifteen years for certain,' George repeated.