There was a wondering silence now for a while. Everybody was
puzzled, and nineteen couples were surprised and indignant.
Billson and Wilson turned and stared at each other. Billson asked,
bitingly:
"Why do _you_ rise, Mr. Wilson?"
"Because I have a right to. Perhaps you will be good enough to explain
to the house why _you_ rise."
"With great pleasure. Because I wrote that paper."
"It is an impudent falsity! I wrote it myself."
It was Burgess's turn to be paralysed. He stood looking vacantly at
first one of the men and then the other, and did not seem to know what to
do. The house was stupefied. Lawyer Wilson spoke up now, and said:
"I ask the Chair to read the name signed to that paper."
That brought the Chair to itself, and it read out the name:
"John Wharton _Billson_."
"There!" shouted Billson, "what have you got to say for yourself now? And
what kind of apology are you going to make to me and to this insulted
house for the imposture which you have attempted to play here?"
"No apologies are due, sir; and as for the rest of it, I publicly charge
you with pilfering my note from Mr.
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