He had warmed into his subject now, and was under no further necessity to wait a bit.

“I would rather be hanged in my own way.  And I mean to be!  I don’t intend to say,” looking round upon us with his powerful arms akimbo and his dark eyebrows raised, “that I am more partial to being hanged than another man.  What I say is, I must come off clear and full or not at all.  Therefore, when I hear stated against me what is true, I say it’s true; and when they tell me, ‘whatever you say will be used,’ I tell them I don’t mind that; I mean it to be used.  If they can’t make me innocent out of the whole truth, they are not likely to do it out of anything less, or anything else.  And if they are, it’s worth nothing to me.”

Taking a pace or two over the stone floor, he came back to the table and finished what he had to say.

“I thank you, miss and gentlemen both, many times for your attention, and many times more for your interest.  That’s the plain state of the matter as it points itself out to a mere trooper with a blunt broadsword kind of a mind.  I have never done well in life beyond my duty as a soldier, and if the worst comes after all, I shall reap pretty much as I have sown.  When I got over the first crash of being seized as a murderer—­it don’t take a rover who has knocked about so much as myself so very long to recover from a crash—­I worked my way round to what you find me now.  As such I shall remain.  No relations will be disgraced by me or made unhappy for me, and—­and that’s all I’ve got to say.”

The door had been opened to admit another soldier-looking man of less prepossessing appearance at first sight and a weather-tanned, bright-eyed wholesome woman with a basket, who, from her entrance, had been exceedingly attentive to all Mr. George had said.  Mr. George had received them with a familiar nod and a friendly look, but without any more particular greeting in the midst of his address.  He now shook them cordially by the hand and said, “Miss Summerson and gentlemen, this is an old comrade of mine, Matthew Bagnet.  And this is his wife, Mrs. Bagnet.”

Mr. Bagnet made us a stiff military bow, and Mrs. Bagnet dropped us a curtsy.

“Real good friends of mine, they are,” sald Mr. George.  “It was at their house I was taken.”

“With a second-hand wiolinceller,” Mr. Bagnet put in, twitching his head angrily.  “Of a good tone.  For a friend.  That money was no object to.”

“Mat,” said Mr. George, “you have heard pretty well all I have been saying to this lady and these two gentlemen.  I know it meets your approval?”

Mr. Bagnet, after considering, referred the point to his wife.  “Old girl,” said he.  “Tell him.  Whether or not.  It meets my approval.”

“Why, George,” exclaimed Mrs. Bagnet, who had been unpacking her basket, in which there was a piece of cold pickled pork, a little tea and sugar, and a brown loaf, “you ought to know it don’t.  You ought to know it’s enough to drive a person wild to hear you.  You won’t be got off this way, and you won’t be got off that way—­what do you mean by such picking and choosing?  It’s stuff and nonsense, George.”