“I’ll make you up a comfortable bed, Thomath,” said Mrs. D., when all the other members of the household had retired to rest, “particularly on account of your sympathy with that young man; for if ever there was innocence anywhere it is in his face: though however that purse could get into his box is a matter as I have yet to learn. It’s very well for Mr. Williamson, that barrister gentleman--who reminds me of a young man as made me an offer before I left boarding-school, which my parenth were particular in sending me to on account of the position I was expected to take in the world--and he may say it with perfect truth, that some one has got into the house and put that purse into his box; but how to get the police to believe it is another thing: but we shall see in the morning.” “They’ll believe it, Maria,” said Thomas, very solemnly, with his eyes fixed upon his wife’s buxom figure, which would obtrude its plumpness and its whiteness through her tight dresses, either in front or behind, and more particularly in an evening when Mrs. Dibble unbuttoned her dress for the purpose of being able to breathe more freely. “They will?--it’s all very well to say they will, but if Mr. Williamson can do no more than show the animas, as he calls it, of the persecutor Mr. Gibbs, it strikes me--judging from the villainous manner of those policeman, who will not allow anyone else to speak except themselves--that Mr. Williamson will only waste his breath.” And Mrs. Dibble went on laying sheets and blankets between a sofa and three chairs, and tucking them down at the foot and making the two pillows go as far as possible in height by the aid of the sofa cushions and an old carpet-bag; whilst Dibble looked on very sadly, but calmly, and wondered what Mrs. Dibble would think in the morning when she entered the room and found that the extempore bed had never been used. “Will you give me a kiss before you go to bed, Maria?” said Dibble, in an appealing tone. “Of course I will, Thomath; for the way as you snatched that five hundred pounds out of the fire, as I may say, deserves ever so many kisses, Thomath, and as done everything to make our lives happy again, though, as I have said before, it was not the money so much as deceiving me, Thomath; I did think I never could have forgiven that; but there, it’s all over, Thomath, and seeing other people in trouble makes one’s heart softer than usual: and so bless you, Thomath, bless you.” Whereupon Mrs. Dibble put her arms round poor Dibble’s neck and bade him good-night. “And good-bye!” said Dibble, when she was going up-stairs; “And good-bye, Maria!” he repeated when he heard the door shut upon her. For Thomas Dibble when he went out into the back kitchen and contemplated the water-butt, determined to run away. Not only to run away, but to leave behind him a confession of the part he had taken in the conspiracy against Paul Somerton.