CHAPTER XX.
AN _ALIBI_ "It was close on six weeks before the doctor at last allowed his patient to attend to the grave business which had prostrated him for so long.
"In the meantime, among the many people who directly or indirectly were made to suffer in this mysterious affair, no one, I think, was more pitied, and more genuinely sympathised with, than Robert Ireland, the manager's eldest son.
"You remember that he had been clerk in the bank?
Well, naturally, the moment suspicion began to fasten on his father his position in the business became untenable.

I think every one was very kind to him.

Mr.
Sutherland French, who was made acting manager 'during Mr.Lewis Ireland's regrettable absence,' did everything in his power to show his goodwill and sympathy to the young man, but I don't think that he or any one else was much astonished when, after Mrs.Ireland's extraordinary attitude in the case had become public property, he quietly intimated to the acting manager that he had determined to sever his connection with the bank.
"The best of recommendations was, of course, placed at his disposal, and it was finally understood that, as soon as his father was completely restored to health and would no longer require his presence in London, he would try to obtain employment somewhere abroad.

He spoke of the new volunteer corps organized for the military policing of the new colonies, and, truth to tell, no one could blame him that he should wish to leave far behind him all London banking connections.

The son's attitude certainly did not tend to ameliorate the father's position.