He led up to his subject carefully. He said that Crampton Park was in the neighbourhood, was it not? He had heard that it lay somewhere to the left in a western suburb of the town. He professed to have found the Green Overcoat in the hall of the house where—where he had passed the night, and as he used these words the three toilers discreetly smiled. He professed to have promised to return it. He professed to remember—with grateful unexpectedness—the name of the house to which he had promised to send it. It was "Lauderdale." He professed an ignorance of the name of its owner. The Professor professed far more that morning of sin than his academic professorship entitled him to do.
He found the lounger (with the Broken Nose) somewhat indifferent to his motives, but very much alive to the economics of the situation; and when the bargain was struck it was for half a crown that the bad proletarian man (with the Broken Nose) took the Green Overcoat over his disreputable arm, promising to deliver it at "Lauderdale" in the course of the morning.
An immense weight was lifted from the unworthy mind of Professor Higginson. Must I tell the whole of the shameful tale? The
