"And you mean to assure me, sir, that you don't know who it was?" "I have not the most remote idea." "Well then, sir, I must tell you it was him who had been robbing you ever since the first day he came to us." "Robbing me?" "Well, not exactly of money in hard cash but of your time, which is just the same. Time's money. Always an hour late." Van Heldre turned upon him fiercely. "Crampton, can you let your prejudice go so far as to suspect that young man?" "Yes, sir, I can... Suspect? No, I am sure. I doubted him from the first." "It is monstrous. You were unjust to him from the first." "I, sir?" "Yes. But then how can a man who has never had a child be just to the weaknesses of the young?" "I can be just, sir, and I have been. You don't know the supercilious way in which that boy treated me from the day he entered our office. Always late, and as soon as he was settled down to his work, in must come that scoundrel with the French name to ask for him, and get him away. Why, Mr Van Heldre, sir, if I hadn't been a law-abiding subject of her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, I'd have knocked that man down." "Bah!" said Van Heldre impatiently, as he lay back frowning, and looking very thoughtful. "I am sorry that you should have entertained such a suspicion about the son of my old friend." "Ah!" sighed Crampton. "Poor Mr Vine! It's heart-breaking work, sir. It is, indeed." "Heart-breaking!" said Van Heldre. "It is atrocious. There, I will not speak angrily, Crampton." "No, sir. You must not; and now I'm going, sir. You've talked twice as much as is good for you." "Sit down," said Van Heldre sternly. Crampton, who had moved towards the door, slowly resumed his place. "I am not too weak to talk about this terrible accusation. I am not going to say much now, only to ask you to throw aside all this prejudice and to look upon the mishap as an unfortunate occurrence. Come, Crampton, be a little broader. Don't be so ready to suspect the first person you dislike, and then to keep obstinately to your opinion." "Better not talk any more," said Crampton shortly. "I must talk," said Van Heldre, more sternly. "Mind this, Crampton, you are wrong." The care, want of rest, and anxiety had produced a state of acidity in the old clerk's organisation which had made him exceptionally irritable. "Wrong, eh?" he said sharply. "Yes; and I must call upon you to be careful to keep these fancies to yourself." "Fancies, sir?" "Yes, fancies, man. I would not on any consideration have Mr Vine know that such a suspicion had existed in my office, and--" He paused for a few moments, and then held out his hand to the old clerk, who took it, and felt his own gripped warmly. "Come, Crampton," continued Van Heldre, smiling; "after all these years together, I trust we are something more than master and man. You have always proved yourself a friend in the way in which you have looked after my interests."