It had been in my mind all along to do so, but the listless procrastination of idleness had caused me to put it off from time to time. Besides, while I was absent from the Channel Islands my curiosity appeared to sleep. It was enough to picture Olivia in her lowly home in Sark. Now that I was returning to Guernsey, and the opportunity was about to slip by, I felt more anxious to seize it. I would learn all I could about Olivia's family and friends, without betraying any part of her secret. At the nearest cab-stand we found a cabman patronized by Jack--a red-faced, good-tempered, and good-humored man, who was as fond and proud of Jack's notice as if he had been one of the royal princes. Of course there was not the smallest difficulty in finding the office of Messrs. Scott and Brown. It was on the second floor of an ordinary building, and, bidding the cabman wait for us, we proceeded at once up the staircase. There did not seem much business going on, and our appearance was hailed with undisguised satisfaction. The solicitors, if they were solicitors, were two inferior, common-looking men, but sharp enough to be a match for either of us. We both felt it, as if we had detected a snake in the grass by its rattle. I grew wary by instinct, though I had not come with any intention to tell them what I knew of Olivia. My sole idea had been to learn something myself, not to impart any information. But, when I was face to face with these men, my business, and the management of it, did not seem quite so simple as it had done until then. "Do you wish to consult my partner or me?" asked the keenest-looking man. "I am Mr. Scott." "Either will do," I answered. "My business will be soon dispatched. Some months ago you inserted an advertisement in the _Times_." "To what purport?" inquired Mr. Scott. "You offered fifty pounds reward," I replied, "for information concerning a young lady." A gleam of intelligence and gratification flickered upon both their faces, but quickly faded away into a sober and blank gravity. Mr. Scott waited for me to speak again, and bowed silently, as if to intimate he was all attention. "I came," I added, "to ask you for the name and address of that young lady's friends, as I should prefer communicating directly with them, with a view to cooperation in the discovery of her hiding-place. I need scarcely say I have no wish to receive any reward. I entirely waive any claim to that, if you will oblige me by putting me into connection with the family." "Have you no information you can impart to us?" asked Mr. Scott. "None," I answered, decisively. "It is some months since I saw the advertisement, and it must be nine months since you put it into the _Times_. I believe it is nine months since the young lady was missing." "About that time," he said. "Her friends must have suffered great anxiety," I remarked. "Very great indeed," he admitted.