George looked up sharply. The applicant, however, was not Lord Averil, and any one else would be more tolerable to him on that day than his lordship; Mr. Godolphin, perhaps, excepted. As the old clerk was withdrawing to give place to the visitor, George caught sight, through the open door, of Mr. Godolphin entering the office. An impulse to throw the disclosure off his own shoulders, prompted him to hasten after Mr. Hurde. "Hurde," he whispered, catching his arm, "you may as well make the communication to Mr. Godolphin. He ought to know it at once, and I may be engaged some time." So George remained shut up, and the old clerk followed Thomas Godolphin to his private room. Mr. Godolphin felt well that morning, and had come unusually early: possibly lest there should be any further blundering over Lord Averil's bonds. He looked somewhat surprised to see the old clerk approaching him with a long face and mysterious look. "Do you want me, Hurde?" "Mr. George has desired me to speak to you, sir, about those bonds of Lord Averil's. To make an unpleasant communication, in fact. He is engaged himself, just now. He says he can't find them." "They are in the strong-room, in Lord Averil's case," replied Mr. Godolphin. "He says they are not there, sir: that he can't find them." "But they are there," returned Thomas. "They have not been moved out of the box since they were first placed in it." He spoke quietly as he ever did, but very firmly, almost as if he were disputing the point, or had been prepared to dispute it. Mr. Hurde resumed after some deliberation: he was a deliberate man always, both in temperament and in speech. "What Mr. George says, is this, sir: That when you were in London Lord Averil asked for his bonds. Mr. George looked for them, and found they were not in the box; and he came to the conclusion that you had moved them. The affair escaped his memory, he says, until last night, when he was asked for them again. He has been searching the box this morning, but cannot find the bonds in it." "They must be there," observed Thomas Godolphin. "If George has not moved them, I have not. He has a knack of overlooking things." "I said so to him, sir, just now. He----" "Do you say he is engaged?" interrupted Thomas Godolphin. "The secretary of the railway company is with him, sir. I suppose he has come about that loan. I think the bonds can't be anywhere but in the box, sir. I told Mr. George so." "Let me know when he is disengaged," said Thomas Godolphin. And Mr. Hurde went out. George Godolphin was disengaged then. Mr. Hurde saw the gentleman, whom he had called the railway company's secretary, departing. The next minute George Godolphin came out of his room. "Have you mentioned that to my brother?" he asked of Hurde. "I have, sir. Mr. Godolphin thinks that you must be mistaken."