Gertrude ran to the window to wave her hand to the amiable old man, but shrank back covered with confusion, and looking suspiciously from one to the other. "Anything the matter, my dear?" said Mrs Hampton wonderingly. "Matter? No," said the lawyer, glancing towards the window. "Why, hang it all! he has brought down Mr Blank." "And, pray, who is Mr Blank?" said the old lady, adjusting her glasses. "Why, Phineas, what do you mean? It's Mr George Harrington." "Good-evening, ladies. There, you need not look so severe, Hampton; I brought our young friend down, and if the ladies consider that I have exceeded my rights, we'll go back again." "Such nonsense!" said Mrs Hampton sharply. "I hope you will forgive my coming," the doctor's companion was saying to Gertrude, as she shook hands. Silence is said to give consent. That must have been the interpretation placed upon Gertrude's silence, for her heart was too full to speak, and their visitor stayed and dined. "No," he said, in the course of the conversation, as to his proceedings, for imperceptibly he had won so upon all present that they seemed now to accept his words as those of the truth: "I have worked very hard and traced our friend to all his haunts, where he is well-known, but I cannot find that he has been there since the night he left here. I have been over to Paris, and on to Switzerland." "With ten pounds?" said the old lawyer sharply. "No. I wrote to Doctor Lawrence when that sum was expended. Did he not tell you?" "No; I've been so busy and anxious over Saul Harrington's case that I forgot to name it, Hampton." The lawyer grunted. "I have traced Mr Saul Harrington's course over on the Continent as easily as could be, but I did not hear a word about his accident." "That's strange," said Mrs Hampton. "Neither could I find that mine enemy had been with him. He was alone all through; and, after spending a lot of money, time, and thought, I am forced to come back and say to you that I must seem in your eyes a greater impostor than ever." "You must try again," said the doctor cheerfully. "The position remains the same." "Yes, I must try again," said the young man thoughtfully. "But I begin to fancy that I have been working from the wrong end. We shall see." The dinner passed off without further allusion to the search for the missing man; but it was plain enough that the visitor's every movement was being critically scanned, the three elders unconsciously seeking for suspicious movements, or words that might indicate their visitor was playing a part, but with the result that they grew greater partisans than ever. "You'll join us in the drawing-room?" said Mrs Hampton, as the ladies rose from the table; and she looked direct at the visitor. "You are very kind," he replied, "but I was going to talk business with these gentlemen for a few minutes, and then go back to town."