"To tell truth
(and axing your forgiveness, Jem), I had never got quite shut of the
notion that Jem here had done it. At times I was as clear of his
innocence as I was of my own; and whenever I took to reasoning about
it, I saw he could not have been the man that did it. Still I never
thought of Barton."
"And yet by his confession he must have been absent at the time,"
said Mr. Carson, referring to his slip of paper.
"Ay, and for many a day after,--I can't rightly say how long. But
still, you see, one's often blind to many a thing that lies right
under one's nose, till it's pointed out. And till I heard what John
Barton had to say yon night, I could not have seen what reason he
had for doing it; while in the case of Jem, any one who looked at
Mary Barton might have seen a cause for jealousy clear enough."
"Then you believe that Barton had no knowledge of my son's
unfortunate"--he looked at Jem--"of his attentions to Mary Barton.
This young man, Wilson, has heard of them, you see."
"The person who told me said clearly she neither had, nor would tell
Mary's father," interposed Jem.
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