Very good--let's suspect them together. It's quite in his
character, we will say, to be capable of stealing the Moonstone. The
only question is, whether it was his interest to do so."
"Mr. Franklin Blake's debts," I remarked, "are matters of family
notoriety."
"And Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite's debts have not arrived at that stage of
development yet. Quite true. But there happen to be two difficulties in
the way of your theory, Miss Clack. I manage Franklin Blake's affairs,
and I beg to inform you that the vast majority of his creditors (knowing
his father to be a rich man) are quite content to charge interest
on their debts, and to wait for their money. There is the first
difficulty--which is tough enough. You will find the second tougher
still. I have it on the authority of Lady Verinder herself, that her
daughter was ready to marry Franklin Blake, before that infernal Indian
Diamond disappeared from the house. She had drawn him on and put him off
again, with the coquetry of a young girl. But she had confessed to her
mother that she loved cousin Franklin, and her mother had trusted
cousin Franklin with the secret. So there he was, Miss Clack, with his
creditors content to wait, and with the certain prospect before him of
marrying an heiress.
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