"You look incredulous; very well. Still, I intend, from this moment, to take an active part in this mysterious complication which has woven itself about me." "Have you forgotten Vernet?" "Not at all; yet it is my duty to make active search for Leslie. Be the consequences to myself what they may, I can remain passive no longer." "Alan, you are talking nonsense. Do you suppose Vernet will let you slip now? Don't you realize that if you are to be found twenty-four hours from this moment, you will be under arrest." "Nevertheless--" "Nevertheless, you will persist in being a fool! Sit down there, young man, and tell me, haven't you been playing that _role_ long enough?" A hot flush rises to Alan's brow, and an angry light leaps for a moment to his eyes; but he resumes his seat in silence, and turns an expectant gaze upon Mr. Follingsbee. "Now, Warburton," resumes the little lawyer in a more kindly tone, "listen to reason. I had a long talk with our unknown friend to-day; not so long as I could have wished, but enough to convince me that he knows what he is about, and that if you follow his advice, he will pull you through. Twice he has saved you from the clutches of this Vernet; leave all to him, and he will rescue you again, and finally." "He has, then, mapped out my course for me?" queries Alan haughtily. "He has, if it suits you to put it so. Good heavens! man, it needed somebody to plan for you. _You_ have done nothing but blunder, blunder, blunder. And your stupid mistakes have recoiled upon others. I tell you, sir--" bringing his fist down upon the table with noisy emphasis--"that unless you accept the advice and assistance of this man, whom you seem to dislike without cause, you are lost, ruined, at least in your own estimation. Confound your Warburton pride! It has brought you into a pretty scrape; and all your Warburton wit won't extricate you from it. Confound _you_! I'm sick of you, sir! If it were not for Leslie, and little Daisy, Van Vernet might have you, and the Warburton honor might go to the dogs, for all my interference!" The mention of little Daisy had its effect upon Alan. As his companion waxed wrathful, his own mind became calmer; for a moment he seemed to see himself through Mr. Follingsbee's spectacles. And then he said: "I accept your rebuke, for I may have deserved it; certainly I have sufficient reason to feel humble. My unknown champion took pains to inform me that he did not serve me for my own sake; and now you proffer me the same assurance. I have blundered fearfully, but I fail to see what influence my conduct could have upon poor Daisy's fate."