"I beg your pardon, ma'am!" cried Matt, hurriedly sopping up the ink with his wisp of a handkerchief; "but blame me if I don't wish I'd been born a woman! trust them for getting to the bottom of everything. Why, Lord bless you, sir, there you are--there's the case in a nutshell!-- that's the matter hit right in the bull's-eye! Why didn't you begin about it before? You're right as a trivet. There's the date of the marriage, and there's the doctor's book--such-and-such a day, such-and-such a time; medicine and attendance, two pound twelve shillings and sixpence. Hallo!" exclaimed Matt, scratching his head, "that comes very pat; where did I hear those words before? But there, look here, sir; I think we've got hold of the right end of the tangle, and here it is. You go down to Somesham and tell nunky how it stands. `Here we are,' says you, `and now give up peaceable and quiet, and I'll say nothing at all about what's gone by.' Of course he won't, and begins to talk big about kicking out of the house, and all that sort of thing. `Two can play at that,' says you; and as he won't be civil, he must have it hot. Back you come; put it in a decent solicitor's hands; with your good documentary evidence out he goes--in you go; and my di'mond has a pony with a long silky tail; Miss Lucy a carriage, and missis here an invalid chair, and old Matt to push it--eh, ma'am?" "But about finding the doctor," said Septimus sadly. "Well, yes--true, to be sure," said Matt, over a fresh pinch of snuff; "but I think we can manage that part, sir. Don't you see, we can tell our road now we've got our line cut out; and we've only got it to do. There's some pye in the case, of course, but we can correct as we go on, eh? There's a doctors' directory, and we can soon find him." "There's a hitch directly," said Septimus. "I don't know his name." "Phillips!" exclaimed Mrs Hardon excitedly. "There we are again," cried Matt; "who'd be without a good partner?" "But how do you know?" said Septimus. "I remember in your mother's last illness," said Mrs Septimus, "that she told me how she longed for her old doctor, for she felt sure Mr Thomas Hardon did not understand her complaint; and that was the first cause of disagreement between your father and Dr Hardon. I heard your father tell him afterwards that he had killed his Sister, and to leave the house." "But the name?" said Septimus, anxious to change the conversation. "Phillips--the same as my own; and that was why it made an impression upon my memory." "Talk about cards to play, sir!" cried Matt, "why, that's winning: your partner has played the leading trump."