'I met'--I could not say my cousin--'I met him, uncle--your son--that young
gentleman--I _saw_ him, I should say, at Church Scarsdale, and afterwards
with some other persons in the warren at Knowl. It was the night our
gamekeeper was beaten.'
'Well, Dudley, what do you say to that?' asked Uncle Silas.
'I never _was_ at them places, so help me. I don't know where they be; and
I never set eyes on the young lady before, as I hope to be saved, in all
my days,' said he, with a countenance so unchanged and an air so confident
that I began to think I must be the dupe of one of those strange
resemblances which have been known to lead to positive identification in
the witness-box, afterwards proved to be utterly mistaken.
'You look so--so _uncomfortable_, Maud, at the idea of having seen him
before, that I hardly wonder at the vehemence of his denial. There was
plainly something disagreeable; but you see as respects him it is a total
mistake. My boy was always a truth-telling fellow--you may rely implicitly
on what he says. You were _not_ at those places?'
'I wish I may----,' began the ingenuous youth, with increased vehemence.
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