A quarter-of-an-hour's detention, and then he was admitted to Mr. Peterby's room. That gentleman was sweeping a pile of open letters into a corner of the table at which he sat, and the master of Trevlyn Hold shrewdly suspected that his waiting had been caused by Mr. Peterby's opening and reading them. He proceeded at once to the business that brought him there, and taking his own letter out of his pocket, handed it to Mr. Peterby. "Connell, Connell, and Ray are your agents in London, I believe? They used to be." "And are still," said Mr. Peterby. "What is this?" "Be so good as to read it," replied Mr. Chattaway. The lawyer ran his eyes over it carelessly, as it seemed to those eyes watching him. Then he looked up. "Well?" "In writing this letter to me--I received it, you perceive, by post this morning, if you'll look at the date--were Connell and Connell instructed by you?" "By me!" echoed Mr. Peterby. "Not they. I know nothing at all about it. I can't make it out." "You are a friend of Rupert Trevlyn's, and they are your agents," remarked Mr. Chattaway, after a pause. "My good sir, I tell you I know nothing whatever of this. Connells are our agents; but I never sent any communication to them with regard to Rupert Trevlyn in my life; never had cause to send one. If you ask me my opinion, I should say that if the lad--should he be still living--entertains hopes of coming into Trevlyn Hold after this last escapade of his, he must be a great simpleton. I expect you'd prosecute him, instead of giving him up the Hold." "I should," quietly answered Mr. Chattaway. "But what do Connell and Connell mean by sending me such a letter as this?" "It is more than I can tell you, Mr. Chattaway. We have received a communication from them ourselves this morning upon the subject. I was opening it when you were announced to me as being here." He bent over the letters previously spoken of, selected one, and held it out to Mr. Chattaway. Instead of being written by the firm, it was a private letter from Mr. Ray to Mr. Peterby. It merely stated that the true heir of Squire Trevlyn, Rupert, was about shortly to take possession of his property, the Hold, and they (Connell, Connell, and Ray) should require Mr. Peterby to act as local solicitor in the proceedings, should a solicitor be necessary. Mr. Chattaway began to feel cruelly uneasy. Rupert had committed that great fault, and was in danger of punishment--_would_ be punished by his country's laws; but in this new uneasiness that important fact seemed to lose half its significance. "And you have not instructed them?" he repeated. "Nonsense, Mr. Chattaway! it is not likely. I cannot make out what they mean, any more than you can. The nearest conclusion I can come to is, that they must be acting from instructions received from that semi-parson who was over here, Mr. Daw."