"Now, let us go on to the meeting between Hill and Birchill," continued
Crewe. "This girl Fanning, discarded by Sir Horace, because he'd
discovered she was playing him false with Birchill, is made the
ostensible reason for Birchill's wishing to commit a burglary at
Riversbrook, because Birchill wants, as he says, to get even with Sir
Horace Fewbanks. Is it likely that Birchill would confide his desire for
revenge so frankly to Sir Horace's confidential servant, the trusted
custodian of his master's valuables, who could rely on his master's
protection--the protection of a highly-placed man of whom Birchill stood
admittedly in fear, and whom he knew, according to Hill's story, was
unassailable from his slander? What had Hill to fear, from the threats of
a man like Birchill, when he was living under Sir Horace Fewbanks's
protection? All that Hill had to do when Birchill tried to induce him,
by threats of exposure of his past, to help in a burglary at his master's
house, was to threaten to tell everything to Sir Horace. Birchill told
Hill that he was frightened of Sir Horace Fewbanks, the judge who had
sentenced him.
"Then Birchill's confidence in Hill is remarkable, any way you look at
it.
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