"You can do so if you like," rejoined Vernon coolly, "for then there will be no Nemo. I shall simply leave England and seek my fortune in Africa. And, after all, I don't see why you should refuse this test. It's to your own advantage that he should be caught, unless you want your aunt to pay five thousand pounds." "Bosh! What The Spider says is a lie." "I daresay; but it won't be pleasant for Mrs. Bedge to know that her friends receive cards stating you are her natural son." "It's an infernal lie," raged Maunders, the blood flushing his cheek and making him look handsomer than ever. "I am not a bit like my aunt in any way. It is true that her sister was my mother, but I take after my father." "Constantine Mavrocordato!" "Dimsdale told you that; he seems to have imparted a lot of my private affairs to you," observed Maunders acidly. "They are quite safe with me as Nemo. I don't use my private discoveries to blackmail people." "Do you believe this lie of The Spider's?" "No, I don't, for one moment. Mrs. Bedge is a good, kind woman, far too good for you, Maunders. She has brought you up and educated you, and allows you money, and altogether has behaved like a trump. For her sake, if not for the sake of becoming my partner in a paying business, you ought to hunt out this brute who asperses her fair fame." The other man stared again at his neat boots. "I'm not such a rotter as you think, Vernon," he said, in a voice filled with feeling; "and, of course, I appreciate my aunt's kindness. We'll let the partnership business stand over for the present. I give you my word that I shan't tell a soul you are Nemo. Also, I'll go to work on my own, and see if I can't catch The Spider. He's not going to get five thousand pounds of my money if I can help it." "Your aunt's money," corrected Vernon gently. "It will be mine some day," said Maunders with a shrug; "but you can see that I have some conscience, badly though you think of me." "I don't think so very badly of you," replied Vernon hurriedly and somewhat untruthfully, "you have your good points, Constantine, but you are so given over to pleasure that you stop at nothing to gratify it." "I stop on the right side of the law, however," retorted Maunders, again becoming his callous self, after the momentary softening. "There will be no chance of Nemo catching me. Well, good-day. I'll do what I say, and perhaps when I meet you at the ball, I'll have something to tell you." "You intend to go, then, in spite of Dimsdale's behaviour?" "Yes, I do," said Maunders doggedly; "and I intend to marry Ida with her thousands a year. So now you know." And he walked off abruptly, leaving Vernon to congratulate himself that he no longer had a dangerous rival in the affections of Lucy Corsoon. "Though I don't believe old Dimsdale will consent to the marriage with Ida," thought Vernon, as he resumed his interrupted walk.