Clearly they are two different debts, which chanced to come to the same figure.

The receipt, however, is not dated, and whether it is the Defendant who is wilfully misrepresenting, or whether the Plaintiff is under a mistaken notion, the Judge for the time cannot decide.

The Defendant declares that she does not know the date and cannot fix it--it was a 'main bit ago,' and that is all she can say.
For the third time the Judge, patient to the last degree, wades through the account-book.

Meanwhile the hands of the clock have moved on.

Instead of being a short case, this apparently simple matter has proved a long one, and already as the afternoon advances the light of the dull winter's day declines.