In short, ma'am"--Plinny turned
again to Miss Belcher--"I saw that each of us at this table had been
wonderfully brought here by the hand of Providence. And from this I
went on to see, and with wonder and thankfulness, that here was a
secret, sought after by many evildoers, which had yet come into the
keeping of six persons, all of them honest, and wishful only to do
good. Consider, ma'am, how unlikely this was, after the many bold,
bad hands that have reached out for it. And will you tell me that
here is accident only, and not the finger of Providence itself?
At first, indeed, we suspected Captain Branscome and Mr. Goodfellow:
they were strangers to us, and, as if that we might be tested, they
came to us under suspicion." Here Mr. Goodfellow put up a hand and
dubiously felt his nose, which was yet swollen somewhat from his
first encounter with Mr. Rogers. "But they have proved their
innocence; Harry gives me his word for them; and I do not think,"
said Plinny, "that you, ma'am, can have heard Captain Branscome's
story without honouring him."
Miss Belcher, thus appealed to, answered only with a grunt, at the
same time shooting from under her shaggy eyebrows an amused glance at
the Captain, who stared at the table-cloth to hide his confusion,
which, however, was betrayed by a pair of very red ears.
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