Our case must rest on the uncertainty of
circumstantial evidence, and the goodness of the prisoner's previous
character. A very vague and weak defence. However, I've engaged
Mr. Clinton as counsel, and he'll make the best of it. And now, my
good fellow, I must wish you good-night, and turn you out of doors.
As it is, I shall have to sit up into the small hours. Did you see
my clerk as you came upstairs? You did! Then may I trouble you to
ask him to step up immediately?"
After this Job could not stay, and, making his humble bow, he left
the room.
Then he went to Mrs. Jones's. She was in, but Charley had slipped
off again. There was no holding that boy. Nothing kept him but
lock and key, and they did not always; for once she had him locked
up in the garret, and he had got off through the skylight. Perhaps
now he was gone to see after the young woman down at the docks. He
never wanted an excuse to be there.
Unasked, Job took a chair, resolved to wait Charley's reappearance.
Mrs. Jones ironed and folded her clothes, talking all the time of
Charley and her husband, who was a sailor in some ship bound for
India, and who, in leaving her their boy, had evidently left her
rather more than she could manage.
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