“You are certain of that, Lady Frances Arlington?” “I am certain, Mr. Alfred Percy.” “And how can you prove it to me, Lady Frances?” “The easiest way in the world--by asking Mrs. Falconer. Only I don’t go there now much, since Georgiana and I have quarrelled--but what can make you so curious about it?” “That’s a secret.”--At the word _secret_, her attention was fixed.--“May I ask if your ladyship would know the seal again if you saw it?--Is this any thing like the impression?” (showing her the seal on the forged cover.) “The very same that I gave Mrs. Falconer, I’ll swear to it--I’ll tell you how I know it particularly. There’s a little outer rim here, with points to it, which there is not to the other. I fastened my bread-seal into an old setting of my own, from which I had lost the stone. Mrs. Falconer took a fancy to it, among a number of others, so I let her have it. Now I have answered all your questions--answer mine--Whom am I to marry?” “Your ladyship will marry whomsoever--your ladyship _pleases_.” “That was an ambiguous answer,” she observed; “for that she _pleased_ every body.” Her ladyship was going to run on with some further questions, but Alfred pretending that the oracle was not permitted to answer more explicitly, left her completely in the dark as to what his meaning had been in this whole conversation. He reported progress to Lord Oldborough--and his lordship slept as soundly this night as he did the night after he had been attacked by the mob. The next morning the first person he desired to see was Mr. Falconer--his lordship sent for him into his cabinet. “Mr. Commissioner Falconer, I promised to give you notice, whenever I should see any probability of my going out of power.” “Good Heaven! my lord,” exclaimed the commissioner, starting back. The surprise, the consternation were real--Lord Oldborough had his eye upon him to determine that point. “Impossible, surely!--I hope--” His hope flitted at the moment to the Duke of Greenwich--but returned instantly: he had made no terms--had missed his time. If Lord Oldborough should go out of office--his place, his pension, gone--utter ruin. Lord Oldborough marked the vacillation and confusion of his countenance, and saw that he was quite unprepared. “I hope--Merciful Powers! I trust--I thought your lordship had triumphed over all your enemies, and was firmer in favour and power than ever. What can have occurred?” Without making any answer, Lord Oldborough beckoned to the commissioner to approach nearer the window where his lordship was standing, and then suddenly put into his hand the cover with the forged handwriting and seal. “What am I to understand by this, my lord?” said the bewildered commissioner, turning it backwards and forwards. “Captain Nuttall!--I never saw the man in my life. May I ask, my lord, what I am to comprehend from this?” “I see, sir, that you know nothing of the business.”