“I think, Mr. Lauriston,” he said, with the smile very much reduced, “that you had better see Mr. Angelo.” He told the boy who entered at this point to request Mr. Angelo to spare him a few minutes, and turned again to his visitor. “You see,” he said, “Miss Weston’s mother, the Countess di Valdestillas, is one of our oldest clients, so that to any business connected with her we like to give the entire collective wisdom of the firm.” At that moment a side-door, the upper part of which was of ground glass, opened, and an old gentleman, of rather impressive appearance and manner, came slowly in. He was of the middle height, slight and spare, with a face and head strikingly like those of the great Duke of Wellington, a resemblance which his old-fashioned built-up collar and stock proved to be carefully cultivated. He carried a gold-rimmed double eyeglass, which he constantly rubbed, during which process his grey short-sighted eyes would travel steadily round, seeing nothing but the subject which occupied his mind, helping to put the barrier of a stately reticence between him and his client. He bowed to Lauriston, with the air of a man who was entitled to be offended by this intrusion, but who would graciously consent to listen to a reasonable excuse; and Mr. Smith, with great deference, placed a chair for the great man, waited till he was seated, and explained the object of the young officer’s visit. “This gentleman, Mr. Angelo, has come to speak to us on some matter concerning Miss Nouna Weston.” The old lawyer stopped for a moment in the action of rubbing his glasses, and then bowed his head slowly. The younger partner glanced at Lauriston as a sign for him to speak. “I am here, sir, to-day,” began the young officer, feeling his confidence rise in this atmosphere of steady, reassuring, middle-class respectability, “as a suitor for the hand of Miss Nouna Weston. I have been referred by her guardian, Mrs. Ellis, to you, as I am told that it is only through you that I can communicate with her mother. I am anxious to make my wishes known to that lady with as little delay as possible.” Mr. Angelo put on his glasses and gave the young fellow a straight, piercing look. Mr. Smith, who seemed to be swallowed up, smile and all, in the more imposing presence of his partner, examined the features, not of his visitor, but of Mr. Angelo. “You have not known the young lady long, I understand?” said the elder lawyer, in a mellow though somewhat feeble voice. “When Mrs. Ellis was last here she made no mention of you as, we being partly guardians to the young lady, she would certainly have done had you already appeared in the capacity of suitor.” “I have not known her three weeks,” said the young man, blushing; “but if you know how she’s living, in a lodging-house full of other people, where anybody can meet her on the stairs, you can’t wonder I want to have a claim over her, so that I can get her into a better home.”