How utterly friendless this dead man appeared to be. Nobody came to Montem Castle to weep over the bier; no man or woman came to look their last upon the white calm face. Two solicitors had been down to make inquiries concerning the state of his affairs. One of them represented the Meter Iron Works; the other was the solicitor to a banking company. Neither of them cared to go up that great oak staircase of Montem Castle into the room where the dead one lay. Their business was of a professional character. Lord Verner tried to avoid seeing them. Lionel Hammerton represented his brother, and endeavoured to answer the questions which the legal gentlemen asked; but they fought very hard for an interview with Lord Verner. They were anxious to learn if there was any chance of his lordship contributing funds towards putting his brother-in-law’s affairs in a solvent condition. They regretted that the extraordinary state of Mr. Tallant’s affairs would not allow of their delaying their visit to Montem Castle until the funeral was over. Lord Verner winced at this reference to the murdered man as his brother-in-law, and promised to consider the application when the gentlemen were enabled to furnish a complete balance-sheet of the deceased’s financial position. The house in Kensington Palace Gardens was closed. One or two slouching fellows with big watch-chains, black hair and prominent noses, had called there soon after the news of the murder, to know if the master was really dead. The first gentleman of this class begged to look at the pictures in the dining-room. He had never looked closely into them; perhaps they would be sold now, and he might be a buyer. Several Stock Exchange men had called, partly out of curiosity, and partly in the hope that there might be some one at the house to tell them that those little claims of theirs for “carrying over” would be honourably settled; but not a soul called out of respect to the man, or from any deep-feeling of sorrow at his violent taking off. Certain tuft-hunters made inquiries, chiefly on account of the fellow being murdered in such aristocratic quarters, and a few “diners out” called to gossip with Tallant’s man about his affairs--how he would cut up--if it was true he had died not worth a penny, &c. &c. But there was speedily an end to all this. The servants had not received their wages for the past few months, and when they began to feel that there was no chance of legacies, and little hope even of their wages being paid, they began to disappear, and with them disappeared sundry articles of plate and wearing apparel, ornaments, jewels, china, and other miscellaneous things. If certain officers of the law had not been speedily placed in possession of the establishment, even the pictures, in which the Jews had exhibited such a lively interest, would soon have followed plate and jewellery.