Mr. Glenthorne took the hint and prepared to depart. “If the suit goes on, I shall act for my niece, and all communications as regards Edwards and yourself will be conducted by your own firms. But if you entertain the idea of the course I have suggested, it might be as well to deal through me. Edwards is a touchy fellow, and requires a good deal of handling. Here is my card.” Wraysbury afterwards saw Shelford. When the whole details were explained to him, including the tentative suggestion of Glenthorne, whose name as a practising solicitor was unknown to him, he at once agreed that it was a put-up job, out of which this shady practitioner was to have his bit. They talked for a long time, and then the idea of Grewgus occurred to Shelford. These people most probably belonged to the underworld of which the detective had a considerable knowledge. He advised him to see Grewgus at once, and fixed up the appointment. “So now you have the whole story,” said the unfortunate young nobleman when he came to the end of it. “Two alternatives face me, and only two; either I must pay this big sum to this infamous set of swindlers, or suffer my name to be dragged through the mire.” “Which course does Shelford advise?” asked the detective. “He is almost as undecided as myself. I don’t pretend that the two hundred thousand would break me; they know that as well as I do. But it is unspeakably humiliating to pay such a big sum for what was not even an act of folly, rather an absence of discretion. On the other hand, if the action goes on----” The young man paused a moment to conquer his emotion. “You see, Mr. Grewgus, I have a very vulnerable place and these thieves know it. I am the only child of my parents, God-fearing, devout souls who have lived lives unspotted from the world. If I alone were concerned, conscious of my innocence, I would brave the shame and scandal of it. But it would break their hearts. They would believe me, because they know my good points as well as my bad ones, but they would know half our world wouldn’t share their belief, and they would never hold up their heads again.” And then Grewgus spoke. He had great sympathy with this manly young fellow; he had heard his voice tremble when he spoke of his mother and father. Thoughtless and careless perhaps, like many young men of his age, but a loyal and affectionate son.