`` I do n't know . We 'll have a try , anyhow . How long before this plate will be dry enough to carry down to the Carrolls as circumstantial evidence ? '' `` Three hours or thereabouts , '' I answered , `` but perhaps sooner . I 'll take two prints off when it is ready . I wonder what the Carrolls will say . '' `` It 's a piece of pure luck that the plate should have turned out so well after the slap-dash way in which it was taken and used . I say , Amy , is n't this quite an adventure ? '' At last the plate was dry , and I printed two proofs . We wrapped them up carefully and marched down to Mr. Carroll 's . You never saw people so overcome with astonishment as the Carrolls were when Cecil , with the air of a statesman unfolding the evidence of some dreadful conspiracy against the peace and welfare of the nation , produced the plate and the proofs , and held them out before them . Mr. Carroll and Cecil took the proofs and went over to the Brooke shanty . They found only Ned and his mother at home . At first Ned , when taxed with his guilt , denied it , but when Mr. Carroll confronted him with the proofs , he broke down in a spasm of terror and confessed all . His mother produced the pocketbook and the money -- they had not dared to spend a single cent of it -- and Mr. Carroll went home in triumph . Perhaps Ned Brooke ought not to have been let off so easily as he was , but his mother cried and pleaded , and Mr. Carroll was too kind-hearted to resist . So he did not punish them at all , save by utterly discarding the whole family and their concerns . The place got too hot for them after the story came out , and in less than a month all moved away -- much to the benefit of Mapleton . In Spite of Myself My trunk was packed and I had arranged with my senior partner -- I was the junior member of a law firm -- for a month 's vacation . Aunt Lucy had written that her husband had gone on a sea trip and she wished me to superintend the business of his farm and mills in his absence , if I could arrange to do so .
She added XXXXX `` Gussie '' thought it was a pity to trouble me , and wanted to do the overseeing herself , but that she -- Aunt Lucy -- preferred to have a man at the head of affairs .
At after as before of off on that to with