It must be remembered that I knew nothing all this time of Hamilton's
remote connection with Roger Wentworth's murder. The dimly hinted rumors
that had reached my ears I had put down to Crofts's desire for a
scapegoat, and the conversation between Frances and Nelly, and Nelly's
conclusions, all came to me after this interview with Hamilton.
Failing to reach any conclusion after a long discussion of the subject,
Hamilton and I began to speak on other topics, and I asked him where he
had been and what he had been doing.
"I have been at the French court, gambling furiously, and hoarding my
money," he answered. "I have not even bought a suit of clothes, and have
turned every piece of lace and every jewel I possessed into cash."
"I supposed you were leaving off some of your old ways, gambling among
them," I remarked, sorry to hear of his fall from grace.
"And so I have," he answered. "But I wanted a thousand pounds to use in a
good cause, and felt that I was doing no wrong to rob a very bad Peter in
France to pay a very good Paul at home. I have paid the good Paul, and am
now done with cards and dice forever."
"I'm glad to hear you say so, George," I returned.
"Yes, I'll tell you how it was," he continued. Then he gave me an account
of the killing of Roger Wentworth, the particulars of which I then
learned for the first time. I allowed him to proceed in his narrative
without interruption, and he finished by saying: "I learned that same
evening that a thousand pounds had been stolen from a traveller.
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