goodness of heart"--("That's nothing," said Mr. Thacker abruptly; "hem! hem! here it is")--"but now I don't know what to say about Madame Sidney. She is evidently not rich, though a thorough lady born and bred; and I'm sure you will think with me that some recompense should be made her, though what it is to be, and how it is to be managed, I must leave to your better sense and knowledge of the world to suggest. One thing I have discovered, and that is, that this is one of the most trying, if not _the_ most trying, occasions on which Madame Sidney has acted in the capacity of sick nurse; and that discovery I made in this way. When I was first coming into convalescence, when I first had a glimmering of what was passing round me, I heard the doctor say to her, 'Well, I knew I was not mistaken; the child owes her recovery, under Providence, to your care and ceaseless attention. It's your greatest experience; it's the opportunity which you have so much wished for, of showing that you possessed the patience, the energy, and the long-suffering for which you have so long fervently prayed; but all of which _I_ knew were your attributes, when, under different circumstances, neither you nor I thought you would ever be called upon to employ them, for they were not wanted then for others, but they were wanted for yourself,--I mean during that week's illness at Martigny.'" "Stop!" cried Charley Yeldham, bringing his hand down heavily on the table, and then rising and pacing hurriedly up and down the room; "stop! that seems to me to be conclusive." "Ah, ha!" cried Thacker, in exultation; "we're hot at last; we're burning now, ain't we? When I came to that passage in Louise's letter, the whole thing flashed across me. I recollected having heard Streightley talk of his wife's illness at Martigny. I said to myself, 'Here's a go; the lost bird's found!' And in an instant I saw my way--I confess it; I don't go in for any high moral dodges--I saw my way to being revenged on Mrs. Gordon Frere, and to shooting a bolt between the joints of her armour, and hitting her in the very place where she was most vulnerable, and would least like to be hit." And Mr. Thacker looked up in Yeldham's face, and rubbed his hands with the greatest glee. "By Jove, Thacker, I think there's very little doubt about the co-identity of Mrs. Streightley and Madame Sidney," said Yeldham, after a few minutes' deliberation. "It will be a wonderful thing if it turns out so. I never thought that--" and Yeldham stopped. "Never thought that I should be the means of furnishing you with such pleasant information? Never thought that the Jew-discounter could ever do a man a good turn without an ulterior view to his own advantage? That's it, eh? Don't be bashful; speak out."