Explore "The Old Man in the Corner" by Emma Orczy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Yes," interrupted Polly eagerly, since, for once, her acumen had been at least as sharp as his, "but suspicion of that horrible crime only shifted its taint from one friend to another, and, of course, I know -- "
"But that's just it," he quietly interrupted, "you don't know -- Mr. Walter Hatherell, of course, you mean. So did everyone else at once. The friend, weak and willing, committing a crime on behalf of his cowardly, yet more assertive friend who had tempted him to evil. It was a good theory; and was held pretty generally, I fancy, even by the police.