For I _had_ seen him--not a doubt about it. But
there was one curious thing. Next time I met Miss Breton I told her the
story, and said, "You remember how we saw Allen, at Blocksby's, just as
we were going away?"
"No," she said, "I did not see him; where was he?"
"Then why did you smile--don't you remember? I looked at him and at you,
and I thought you smiled!"
"Because--well, I suppose because _you_ smiled," she said. And the
subject of the conversation was changed.
It was an excessively awkward affair. It did not come "before the
public," except, of course, in the agreeably mythical gossip of an
evening paper. There was no more public scandal than that. Allen was
merely ruined. The matter was introduced to the notice of the Wardens
and the other Fellows of St. Jude's. What Lord Tarras saw, what Mr.
Wentworth saw, what I saw, clearly proved that Allen was in the auction-
rooms, and had the confounded book in his hand, at an hour when, as _he_
asserted, he had left the place for some time. It was admitted by one of
the people employed at the sale-rooms that Allen had been noticed (he was
well known there) leaving the house at three. But he must have come back
again, of course, as at least four people could have sworn to his
presence in the show-room at a quarter to four o'clock.
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