in short, it had completely prostrated him.
I never knew how deeply he was attached to you, Lionel, until that
night."

"He believed the story?" said Lionel.

"Of course he believed it," assented John Massingbird. "I told it him as
a certainty, as a thing about which there was no admission for the
slightest doubt: I assumed it, myself, to be a certainty. When he was a
little recovered, he took possession of the glove, and bound me to
secrecy. You would never have forgotten it, Lionel, had you seen his
shaking hands, his imploring eyes, heard his voice of despair; all
lifted to beseech secrecy for you--for the sake of his dead brother--for
the name of Verner--for his own sake. I heartily promised it; and he
handed me over a more liberal sum than even I had expected, enjoined me
to depart with the morrow's dawn, and bade me Godspeed. I believe he was
glad that I was going, lest I might drop some chance word during the
present excitement of Deerham, and by that means direct suspicion to
you. He need not have feared. I was already abusing myself mentally for
having told _him_, although it had gained me my ends: 'Live and let
live' had been my motto hitherto. The interview was nearly over when you
came to interrupt it, asking if Mr. Verner would see Robin Frost. Mr.
Verner answered that he might come in. He came; you and Fred with him.
Do you recollect old Verner's excitement?--his vehement words in answer
to Robin's request that a reward should be posted up? 'He'll never be
found, Robin; the villain will never be found, so long as you and I and
the world shall last.' I recollect them, you see, word for word, to this
hour; but none, save myself, knew what caused Mr. Verner's excitement,
or that the word 'villain' was applied to you. Upon my word and honour,
old boy, I felt as if I had the deeper right to it! and I felt angry
with old Verner for looking at the affair in so strong a light. But
there was no help for it. I went away the next morning----"

"Stay!" interrupted Lionel. "A single word to me would have set the
misapprehension straight. Why did you not speak it?"

"I wish I had, now. But--it wasn't done. There! The knowledge that turns
up in the future we can't call to aid in the present. If I had had a
doubt that it was you, I should have spoken. We were some days out at
sea on our voyage to Australia when I and Luke got comparing notes; and
I found, to my everlasting astonishment, that it was not you, after all,