‘Yes, a great service. I was ill—I could not attend to things myself; but he has brought everything round to a most satisfactory issue. My agent did much better than I could have done.’ ‘Your agent! He did not come as your agent, but as yourself.’ ‘Exactly—the only satisfactory way in which he could come. Why he did so, is his business and mine. You had better not inquire more closely into the matter.’ ‘Your agent! Signor Pagliadini said——’ ‘Signor Pagliadini is an old fool.’ ‘You know him, then?’ ‘Yes, for a meddling, blunder-headed fool. You will see no more of the Signor, Aunt Belassis.’ ‘Has he gone, then?’ ‘Gone to the place he came from, to hide his diminished head. He vanished double-quick, I can tell you, when I appeared upon the scene.’ This was the final blow. All lingering hope of proving Tor a villain, was crushed by the news of Signor Pagliadini’s sudden flight. ‘Well, I don’t think I’ll stay longer to-day,’ said Phil. ‘You seem altogether too much astonished to have anything to say. I’ll look in another day when you have got over your surprise. Tor would have me come to report myself at headquarters, and I’ve done it now. You may congratulate yourself, uncle, that you had Tor to deal with in the first place, not me. I’m an awful duffer at business, and never do understand things. Any fool could cheat me. But Tor, he’s made of different stuff, and he can’t have tried your patience half so much as I should have done. You’ll be saved all trouble now with my stupidity, for he will teach me everything. He’s so well up in all my affairs, that I feel as if he ought to be the master.’ So Phil and Tor departed, leaving the husband and wife alone together. They looked in silence into each other’s faces, as if they both felt that a great calamity had befallen them. ‘Can we not prosecute, then?’ said she. ‘Impossible, so long as Philip supports him.’ ‘It’s a disgraceful scandal!’ said the wife. ‘It is,’ assented the husband. ‘Oh, what a monstrous shame it has all been! If only we had had that other man to deal with, all would have been safe, and Maud would have been Lewis’s wife by this time. He is the very image of his father. I could have turned him round my little finger.’ ‘It seems to me that we are pretty nearly ruined every way,’ said Mrs. Belassis; ‘and we shall be most certainly, if that will in the Ladywell library is ever found. Five thousand you can pay, and the interest we claim as recompense for Maud’s expenses whilst under our care. But fifteen thousand with interest for eighteen years——’ ‘Would mean simple ruin. The trust-money is all gone.’ ‘I know it, and we must find the will,’ said Mrs. Belassis; ‘though I don’t know if there is any reason why I should trouble myself over your affairs now.’ CHAPTER XI. MR. MEREDITH S VIEW.