CHAPTER XXXV.
MILBURGH'S STORY "I do not intend," said Mr.Milburgh in his best oracular manner, "describing all the events which preceded the death of the late Thornton Lyne.

Nor will I go to any length to deal with his well-known and even notorious character.

He was not a good employer; he was suspicious, unjust, and in many ways mean.

Mr.Lyne was, I admit, suspicious of me.
He was under the impression that I had robbed the firm of very considerable sums of money--a suspicion which I in turn had long suspected, and had confirmed by a little conversation which I overheard on the first day I had the pleasure of seeing you, Mr.Tarling." Tarling remembered that fatal day when Milburgh had come into the office at the moment that Lyne was expressing his views very freely about his subordinate.
"Of course, gentlemen," said Milburgh, "I do not for one moment admit that I robbed the firm, or that I was guilty of any criminal acts.

I admit there were certain irregularities, certain carelessnesses, for which I was morally responsible; and beyond that I admit nothing.