A team of horses could not have
moved Webster at that moment.
"Might I ask, then what...?"
"There's been a misunderstanding," said Sam. "At least, there was, but
now there isn't, if you see what I mean."
"I fear I have not quite grasped your meaning, sir."
"Well, I--I--played a sort of--you might almost call it a sort of trick
on Miss Bennett. With the best motives, of course!"
"Of course, sir!"
"And she's found out. I don't know how she's found out, but she has. So
there you are!"
"Of what nature would the trick be, sir? A species of ruse, sir,--some
kind of innocent deception?"
"Well, it was like this."
It was a complicated story to tell, and Sam, a prey to conflicting
emotions, told it badly; but such was the almost superhuman
intelligence of Webster, that he succeeded in grasping the salient
points. Indeed, he said that it reminded him of something of much the
same kind in the Nosegay Novelette, "All for Her," where the hero,
anxious to win the esteem of the lady of his heart, had bribed a tramp
to simulate an attack upon her in a lonely road.
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