"Then did you not see this Mr. Hardcastle, Ben?" asked his sister. "I tell you, no! I never saw or heard of him in my life." "Then why need you have flown out so?" "Well, one does not like to be compared to a--murderer. Some of you had been calling him one." No more was said. But the hilarity (if there had been any) of the meeting was taken away, and Robert Carr rose to leave. He had a little business to do in Westerbury yet, he said, and must go back that night to London. The squire was the only one who showed courtesy in the farewell. Benjamin was sullenly resentful still; Mrs. Lewis haughty and indifferent. "Is he quite in his right mind?" Robert Carr asked of Mr. Arkell, as they drove out of the avenue. "Who?--Benjamin Carr? Oh yes, he is right enough. He is as sharp as a needle." "Then what could have caused him to break out in the manner he did? I never was so taken to in my life." "I don't know," said Mr. Arkell; "it is puzzling me still. But for his very emphatic denial, I should assume it to be as Mrs. Lewis suggested--that he must have got acquainted with this Hardcastle, and did not like to hear any ill of him." "Is he a married man?" "No. Not any of the squire's children have married, except Mrs. Lewis. And she's a widow, as you heard her say." "I suppose she is the daughter that has entered into possession of my grandfather's house?" "She is. Hoping, no doubt, to stay there." "Tell me, Mr. Arkell," resumed Robert Carr after a pause, for he could not forget the recent occurrence, "did _you_ see anything offensive in my allusion?" "Certainly not. Neither would anyone else. I say I cannot make out Benjamin Carr." Before starting for London that night, Robert Carr paid a visit to Mr. Fauntleroy. It was after office hours, but that gentleman received him in his drawing-room. One of Mr. Fauntleroy's daughters, a buxom damsel on the same large scale as her father, was thumping through some loud piece on the piano. She satisfied her curiosity by a good look at the intruder, as all Westerbury would like to have done, for his name had been in men's mouths that day, and then retired with a good-humoured smile and nod, carrying her piece of music. "Bab!" called out the lawyer. Miss Fauntleroy came back. "Did you speak, pa?" "Don't go strumming that in the next room. This gentleman has perhaps called to talk on matters of business." She threw down the music with a laugh: gave another good-natured nod to Robert, and finally quitted the room. "Mr. Fauntleroy, I have come--but I ought first to apologize for calling at this hour, but I am going off at once to London--I have come to ask if you will act for me as my legal adviser?" Mr. Fauntleroy made a momentary pause. "Do you mean generally, or in any particular cause?"