“I know that,” she rejoined crossly, “and that is why every one agreed that James Fairbairn could not possibly—­”

“And do you not call it a positive fact, then, that James Fairbairn could not possibly, etc., etc., seeing that the glass partition door was locked from the inside; Mrs. Ireland herself let James Fairbairn into her husband’s office when she saw him lying fainting before the open safe.  Of course that was a positive fact, and so was the one that proved to any thinking mind that if that safe was opened with a key, it could only have been done by a person having access to that key.”

“But the man in the private office—­”

“Exactly! the man in the private office.  Enumerate his points, if you please,” said the funny creature, marking each point with one of his favourite knots.  “He was a man who might that night have had access to the key of the safe, unsuspected by the manager or even his wife, and a man for whom Mrs. Ireland was willing to tell a downright lie.  Are there many men for whom a woman of the better middle class, and an Englishwoman, would be ready to perjure herself?  Surely not!  She might do it for her husband.  The public thought she had.  It never struck them that she might have done it for her son!”

“Her son!” exclaimed Polly.

“Ah! she was a clever woman,” he ejaculated enthusiastically, “one with courage and presence of mind, which I don’t think I have ever seen equalled.  She runs downstairs before going to bed in order to see whether the last post has brought any letters.  She sees the door of her husband’s office ajar, she pushes it open, and there, by the sudden flash of a hastily struck match she realizes in a moment that a thief stands before the open safe, and in that thief she has already recognized her son.  At that very moment she hears the watchman’s step approaching the partition.  There is no time to warn her son; she does not know the glass door is locked; James Fairbairn may switch on the electric light and see the young man in the very act of robbing his employers’ safe.

“One thing alone can reassure the watchman.  One person alone had the right to be there at that hour of the night, and without hesitation she pronounces her husband’s name.

“Mind you, I firmly believe that at the time the poor woman only wished to gain time, that she had every hope that her son had not yet had the opportunity to lay so heavy a guilt upon his conscience.

“What passed between mother and son we shall never know, but this much we do know, that the young villain made off with his booty, and trusted that his mother would never betray him.  Poor woman! what a night of it she must have spent; but she was clever and far-seeing.  She knew that her husband’s character could not suffer through her action.  Accordingly, she took the only course open to her to save her son even from his father’s wrath, and boldly denied James Fairbairn’s statement.