'Paul's Eleven have challenged the Gipsies,' said Lake, languidly lifting his eyes from the paper. 'By-the-bye, are you anything of a cricketer? And they are to play at Hockley, Sir Julius Hockley's ground. You know Sir Julius, don't you?' 'Very slightly. I may say I _have_ that honour, but we have never been thrown together; a mere--a--the slightest thing in the world.' 'Not schoolfellows----you are not an Eton man, eh?' said Lake. 'Oh no! My dear father' (the organist) 'would not send a boy of his to what he called an idle school. But my acquaintance with Sir Julius was a trifling matter. Hockley is a very pretty place, is not it?' 'A sweet place. A great match was played between those fellows at Brighton: Paul's Eleven beat fifteen of the Ishmaelites, about a fortnight since; but they have no chance with the Gipsies. It will be quite a hollow thing--a one-innings affair.' 'Have you ever seen Paul's Eleven play?' asked the lawyer, carelessly taking up the newspaper which Lake had laid down. 'I saw them play that match at Brighton, I mentioned just now, a few days ago.' 'Ah! did you?' 'Did not you _know_ I was there?' said Lake, in rather a changed tone. Larkin looked up, and Lake laughed in his face quietly the most impertinent laugh he had ever seen or heard, with his yellow eyes fixed on the lawyer's pink little optics. 'I was there, and Hockley was there, and Mark Wylder was there--was not he?' and Lake stared and laughed, and the attorney stared; and Lake added, 'What a d--d cunning fellow you are; ha, ha, ha!' Larkin was not easily put out, but he _was_ disconcerted now; and his cheeks and forehead grew suddenly pink, and he coughed a little, and tried to throw a look of mild surprise into his face. 'Why, you have this moment had a letter from Hockley. Don't you think I knew his hand and the post-mark, and your look said quite plainly, "Here's news of my friend Stanley Lake and Mark Wylder." I had an uncle in the Foreign Office, and they said he would have been quite a distinguished diplomatist if he had lived; and I was said to have a good deal of his talent; and I really think I have brought my little evidences very prettily together, and jumped to a right conclusion--eh?' A flicker of that sinister shadow I have sometimes mentioned crossed Larkin's face, and contracted his eyes, as he said, a little sternly-- 'I have nothing on earth to conceal, Sir; I never had. All _my_ conduct has been as open as the light; there's not a letter, Sir, I ever write or receive, that might not, so far as _I_ am concerned, with my good will, lie open on that table for every visitor that comes in to read;--open as the day, Sir:' and the attorney waved his hand grandly. 'Hear, hear, hear,' said Lake, languidly, and tapping a little applause on the table, while he watched the solicitor's rhetoric with his sly, disconcerting smile.