"Not exactly that," said Charley Yeldham. "I am in the habit of speaking out, and so I'll say that I never thought--how could I?--that the man whom we have all regarded as the active agent in Robert Streightley's financial ruin would probably turn out to be the means of securing his domestic happiness." "I hope to God I may!" said Thacker earnestly. "Look here. I don't pretend to be a particularly moral or a strait-laced kind of person; and I acknowledge, as I have done from the first, that my promptings in this matter have been to be revenged on Hester Gould--Mrs. Frere, I mean. But if by any act of mine I could do a good turn to Streightley, whom I believe to be an honourable man and a devilish clever fellow, and to his wife, who is certainly the handsomest woman I know, I--well, it would be a deuced pleasant thing to think over by and by, and I wouldn't let money be any obstacle to my carrying it out." "You said I didn't like you, and wasn't pleased to see you, when you came in," said Yeldham, taking Thacker's hand and wringing it. "Put that opinion to the test some day--you'll find yourself mistaken." "That's the ticket," said Mr. Thacker. "And now good-bye, and God speed you! I swear all the notions of revenge on Mrs. F. with which I came here seem to have disappeared, and I can think of nothing now but the chance of having done a good turn to Streightley. Ah, old Shakespeare knew all about it: 'Hath not a Jew what's-his-names'--you remember the quotation." And Mr. Thacker waved his hand jauntily in adieu and left the chambers. As may be readily supposed, Yeldham lost no time in communicating to Robert the main points of Mr. Thacker's valuable information. He kept that gentleman's revelation of the virtuous motives which had animated him strictly to himself; they did not bear upon Robert's interests, and a knowledge of them could only tend to distress him. Robert's agitation was extreme when he learned the unmistakably reliable nature of the clue now placed so unexpectedly in their hands. He remembered the English doctor who had attended Katharine in her illness at Martigny perfectly, and he was desperately vexed and impatient with himself that he had not remembered him sooner. Yeldham did not try to stem the tide of his self-reproach, but he did not set himself very seriously in opposition to Robert's determination, that the evening of the day then passing should see him _en route_ for Paris.