ter friendliness.

'You must be feeling settled again by this time, Mr. Springrove, after
the rough turn-out you had on that terrible night in November.'

'Ay, but I don't know about feeling settled, either, Mr. Manston. The
old window in the chimney-corner of the old house I shall never forget.
No window in the chimney-corner where I am now, and I had been used to
it for more than fifty years. Ted says 'tis a great loss to me, and he
knows exactly what I feel.'

'Your son is again in a good situation, I believe?' said Manston,
imitating that inquisitiveness into the private affairs of the natives
which passes for high breeding in country villages.

'Yes, sir. I hope he'll keep it, or do something else and stick to it.'

''Tis to be hoped he'll be steady now.'

'He's always been that, I assure 'ee,' said the old man tartly.

'Yes--yes--I mean intellectually steady. Intellectual wild oats will
thrive in a soil of the strictest morality.'

'Intellectual gingerbread! Ted's steady enough--that's all I know about
it.'

'Of course--of course. Has he respectable lodgings? My own experience
has shown me that that's a great thing to a young man living alone in
London.'

'Warwick Street, Charing Cross--that's where he is.'

'Well, to be sure--strange! A very dear friend of mine used to live at
number fifty-two in that very same street.'

'Edward lives at number forty-nine--how very near being the same house!'
said the old farmer, pleased in spite of himself.

'Very,' said Manston. 'Well, I suppose we had better step along a little
quicker, Mr. Springrove; the parson's bell has just begun.'

'Number forty-nine,' he murmured.

4. MARCH THE TWELFTH

Edward received Owen's letter in due time, but on account of his daily
engagements he could not attend to any request till the clock had struck
five in the afternoon. Rushing then from his office in Westminster, he
called a hansom and proceeded to Hoxton. A few minutes later he knocked
at the door of number forty-one, Charles Square, the old lodging of Mrs.
Manston.

A tall man who would have looked extremely handsome had he not been
clumsily and closely wrapped up in garments that were much too elderly
in style for his years, stood at the corner of the quiet square at the
same instant, having, too, alighted from a cab, that had been driven
along Old Street in Edward's rear. He smiled confidently when Springrove
knocked.

Nobody came to the door. Springrove knocked