“It is most provoking,” said Mrs. Tristram, “to hear you talk of the ‘charge’ when the charge is burnt up.  Is it quite consumed?” she asked, glancing at the fire.

Newman assured her that there was nothing left of it.  “Well then,” she said, “I suppose there is no harm in saying that you probably did not make them so very uncomfortable.  My impression would be that since, as you say, they defied you, it was because they believed that, after all, you would never really come to the point.  Their confidence, after counsel taken of each other, was not in their innocence, nor in their talent for bluffing things off; it was in your remarkable good nature!  You see they were right.”

Newman instinctively turned to see if the little paper was in fact consumed; but there was nothing left of it.