"I give you my word of honor," said Mark Inglefield, appealing to those by whom he was surrounded, and who hemmed him and Mr. Manners in, determined that they should not escape--"I give you my word of honor that I have not the least idea what this man means. I do not know him, nor any person belonging to him." "You lie!" cried Mr. Parkinson. "I speak the truth," said Mark Inglefield, perfectly calm. "This gentleman who has accompanied me here will testify to it. If I did not suspect that this man is not accountable for his words, I would not remain here another moment." "But you must," said a friend of Mr. Parkinson; and, "Yes, you must, you must!" proceeded from others in the throng. "I will," said Mark Inglefield, "because I have come here for the express purpose of unmasking a foul plot--" "Rightly put," shouted Mr. Parkinson. "A foul plot--a foul plot! And it shall be unmasked, and the guilty shall suffer--not the innocent! For, after all, mates"--and now he, in his turn, appealed to the crowd--"what blame lies at the door of a weak, foolish girl who is led to her ruin by the lying, plausible words of gentlemen like these?" But here the unreasoning torrent of his wrath was stemmed by many of his comrades, who said: "None of that, Parkinson. It won't help you, and it won't help us. The gentleman speaks fair. He says he has come here to unmask a foul plot." "That is my intention, and the intention of my friend here," said Mark Inglefield, "and, as you say, it will not help him nor any of us to be violent and abusive. Why, does it not stand to reason that we could have kept away if we had chosen? Does it not prove, coming here of our own accord as we have done, that we are of the same mind as yourselves?" "Yes," replied one, struck, as others were, with this plain reasoning, "let us hear what this gentleman has to say." "It is not for me," said Mark Inglefield, who, although he had won the suffrages of his audience, was not disposed to be too communicative, "to pry into any man's family affairs, but when he makes them public property and brings false accusations against the innocent, he is not justified in grumbling if he is hauled over the coals. My friend here was compelled last night to listen to charges which seemed to him to implicate me in some trouble into which Mr. Parkinson has fallen." "How do you come to know his name?" inquired a man. "He gave it last night to this gentleman, who communicated it to me. Besides, it has been mentioned half a dozen times by yourselves. The charges I referred to coming to my ears, it was arranged between my friend and myself that we should present ourselves here this morning for the purpose of confuting them. I suppose you don't expect anything fairer than that?" "Nothing could be fairer."