"It would certainly seem that he did not. As I have already told you, he fainted before having come to the end of what he had evidently intended to say, and he died a few hours later. What further revelations he would have made had he lived a little while longer, it is now, of course, impossible to say." "A lucky thing for us he died when he did!" said Edward, more to himself than to his brother. "The world will not fail to saddle him with the double crime." As the brothers shook hands at parting, by which time it was past midnight, Edward said: "By the way, Clem, that girl of yours must be one in a thousand. I hereby retract every word in her disparagement that I have ever given utterance to. I shall be proud to be introduced to her." Then more earnestly, and with what for him was an unwonted display of feeling: "In such a business as we have been discussing it is only a part of the selfishness of human nature that we should think of ourselves first, but I hope you'll believe me when I say that not the least portion of the happiness your news has caused me is due to the fact that the last shred of suspicion, which for so long a time has clung to that noble-hearted creature, John Brancker, will now be torn away, and his good name be given back to him as pure and unsullied as, in reality, it has been from the first!" In the course of the following afternoon, Miss Brancker, Hermia, and Clement arrived at Stavering, and, under the guidance of the latter, proceeded to take up their quarters at the "King's Arms" Hotel. A few hours later, Clement walked over to the "Chequers Inn," at Dritton, in search of Barney Dale, whom he found seated among his cronies in his usual corner. Drawing the old man aside, Clement said. "Miss Hermia Rivers is in Stavering--at the 'King's Arms' Hotel. How soon can you make it convenient to call and see her?" "And have you brought her--the bonnie darling?" exclaimed Barney. "Well, well, I suppose I must do what I promised. But the mistress grows queerer every day, and what the upshot will be when I bring 'em together, I canna as much as guess. But I'll be there to-morrow some time in the afternoon, and maybe--but I mun think it all over between now and then;" and with that Barney went back to his pipe and tankard of ale. Next morning Clement hired a conveyance, and drove Aunt Charlotte and Hermia as far as the park entrance to Broome, where they all alighted. Everything remained as when Clement had been there last. Leading the way through the door in the wall, he brought the ladies to where the mutilated griffin, which he had sketched, lay unheeded among the weeds and grass. Hermia sighed as she looked at it.