"Oh, certainly," replied Lord Dewry, with somewhat of a sarcastic smile; "you may inquire, and I will answer you, Sir Roger: but then, if I do, I must, I am afraid, demand a bond for the two hundred and fifty pounds I am about to advance, as I must either have security for my money or my secrets--which you like, Sir Roger." "Oh, then, my lord," replied Sir Roger Millington, inclining his head with a significant bow, "the matter is very simple. As I have no security to offer for the money, I will beg not to burden myself with your lordship's confidence any further than you think absolutely necessary; and in regard to the note which is likely to produce results so unlucky to both you and me--for I am fain to believe that my prosperity is now intimately connected with your lordship's--I think the best way to settle the matter will be to put it in the fire." "I do not exactly know that," answered Lord Dewry, musing: "at all events, let me convince you first that it was written on the eighteenth, instead of the nineteenth." "My lord, I am already convinced," said Sir Roger Millington, who, once having obtained the cue, could go on without the prompter--"I am already convinced: I see my mistake. I remember it was the day before the great walking bet came off, which was on the nineteenth, at Hounslow. Indeed, it is impossible that it could have been otherwise: for I was present on the ground all day; and if I was at Hounslow all day, I could not receive your note in London." "True, true," said the peer; though he very well knew that the note which he had written after his return to town, the very day subsequent to his brother's death, had found Sir Roger just come back from Hounslow--"true, true, Sir Roger; and doubtless you could swear to all these facts, should it be necessary." "Beyond all doubt, my lord," replied the knight, "circumstances crowd upon my memory which all tend to show that your lordship is right; and it must have been the mistaken date of the note which deceived me." "Would it not, then, be advisable," demanded the peer, "to rectify the date which the note bears, instead of destroying it--hey, Sir Roger, hey?" "Certainly, my lord, certainly," said Sir Roger; and then, dropping his voice, he added in a half-whisper, "if it can be done without the chance of discovery." "Easily," replied the peer--"easily, Sir Roger: a little acid which I have in my library will take out the tail of the nine, without leaving a trace; there will then remain only a cipher, which I will alter to an eight; so that no one will see a difference between the writing of that figure and the rest of the letter. You and I, the only persons concerned in a private letter from me to you, are both convinced that the date ought to be so rectified; and no one else need know any thing about it." "I am perfectly of your lordship's opinion," replied Sir Roger; "had it not better be done immediately?"