or you haven't. I only say that you'll never be able to persuade Chloë that you meant to be funny with that book and that she will die of shame at being shown up as the child of its author. Now I don't want to have Chloë dying, or even crying. So I refuse to have anything to do with this nonsense of telling the truth. Of course I can't prevent you from doing it, if you insist; but I give you fair warning, Archdeacon, that I shall flatly deny your allegation that you are the author of 'Trixie.' And how you propose to get over that I don't quite see, for since your original manuscript is burnt, you haven't a scrap of proof that you wrote the book. It'll just be your unsupported word against mine, only I shall be able to point to the rather telling fact that you've said nothing hitherto and have let me take all the royalties and all the notoriety. Why,
