.

I am not used to receive such things: yet I know what ought to be done with them--toss them into the fire at once and dismiss them from your mind.

I make no doubt I should have burnt it within another ten minutes: as for cleansing one's mind of it so quickly, that must be a counsel of perfection.

But you were shown in, and I--I made certain that you could contradict this disgraceful report and set my mind at rest.

Forgive me." "Ah, Master"-- Brother Copas glanced up with a quick smile-- "it almost looks as if you were right after all, and one is never too old to confess!" He bent and held the edge of the paper close to the blaze.