"And he refused?"
Miriam was very white now.
"He did."
"I should think so," returned Thorne. "Two hundred and fifty would be more like Murgatroyd's price—if he can be bought."
"No, he cannot be bought," Miriam ventured with perhaps a trifle more confidence in her tone than Mr. Thorne liked; and then she added, in a changed voice: "I want you, please, to retract this story. I want to take it all back. I was unstrung, I——"
"I will retract nothing," he cut in rudely. "Not a thing. Leave it as it is. If you begin to retract you'll get yourself in trouble. If Murgatroyd desires to make a move, let him...."
And with a promise to that effect, a hurried acknowledgment with an inclination of the head that she accepted his words as ending her interview, she left the office, leaving him far from certain that Peter Broderick's appraisement of Murgatroyd's character was not a correct one.
That night when the papers came out, people read them in anger and dismay; by the next morning they merely laughed; likewise the Court.
"If he were bribed," said public comment, "it was a bribe that didn't work."
And Murgatroyd, submitting to interview after interview, reiterated over and over again to the reporters:—