Search me and my
dwelling: you will find nothing but three pound five of my own
savings, which William Dane knows I have had these six months.' At
this William groaned, but the minister said, 'The proof is heavy
against you, brother Marner. The money was taken in the night last
past, and no man was with our departed brother but you, for William
Dane declares to us that he was hindered by sudden sickness from going
to take his place as usual, and you yourself said that he had not
come; and, moreover, you neglected the dead body.'
'I must have slept,' said Silas. Then, after a pause, he added, 'Or
I must have had another visitation like that which you have all seen
me under, so that the thief must have come and gone while I was not in
the body, but out of the body. But, I say again, search me and my
dwelling, for I have been nowhere else.'
The search was made, and it ended- in William Dane's finding the
well-known bag, empty, tucked behind the chest of drawers in Silas's
chamber! On this William exhorted his friend to confess, and not to
hide his sin any longer. Silas turned a look of keen reproach on
him, and said, 'William, for nine years that we have gone in and out
together, have you ever known me tell a lie? But God will clear me.'
'Brother,' said William, 'how do I know what you may have done in
the secret chambers of your heart, to give Satan an advantage over
you?'
Silas was still looking at his friend.
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