To keep his unsuspecting kinsman as long as possible in the dark by this pretended delicacy, was, as we have said, a part of Geoffery's hellish plot. He had contrived, under the mask of sympathy, to put a few important questions to Alfred, and the answers to these had been such, as very materially to increase his hopes of ultimate success. But he knew that if Alfred were informed that such a surmise, as that of his having wilfully murdered his poor brother, had found a place in the mind of any being upon earth, he would of course immediately come forward, and court the fullest investigation. And though it did not follow that even this must clear him, his avoiding inquiry, as Geoffery knew he would continue to do, while under his present impression, would furnish, when connected with the circumstances that must come out in evidence, a strong presumption of guilt. "Humph! humph!" uttered from time to time with the intonation of a fat pig wallowing in mud, had been the cautious comment of the sagacious Mr. Fips, during this lengthened tirade, except indeed that an involuntary exclamation of "No! That's good!" had broken from him on the mention of the piece of paper marked "_Poison_" having fallen from within the breast of Sir Alfred's waistcoat, and again, "That's better still," accompanied by a resounding stroke of his clenched hand on the table, when Geoffery came to his having himself seen the missing packet of arsenic in Sir Alfred's escritoire. "I am always happy to oblige you, Mr. Arden," at length commenced Mr. Fips; "but after all, this is a kind of thing which cannot be said to be much in the way of my business; without, indeed, it could be contrived that I was to be attorney for the prosecution; for that there will be a prosecution there can be no doubt from what you tell me. I had heard all before, certainly in the way of report, but I had no idea it could be at all true;--I had no notion you had so good a case." Geoffery undertook to arrange that Fips should be the attorney employed. "You have often, Fips," he continued, "conducted business for me in the most liberal and friendly manner, when it was not in my power to remunerate your services as they merited; should I however have the misfortune--for misfortune I must call it, taking all the circumstances into consideration--to succeed to the Arden estates on the _present_ occasion, to repay amply all your past _disinterested_ friendship shall be my first care. You shall not only have the agency, which is no trifle, but a handsome annuity beside; and that not only for your own life, but also secured to your daughter; unless indeed, means can be devised," he added, smiling, "of identifying her interest with those of the owner of the estates themselves. I have hitherto been deterred," he added with an affectation of great candour, "from mentioning this subject by my poverty, and consequent inability to marry; but my admiration of Miss Fips, I think you must have seen."