of anxiety
to what I already suffered. It was plain that she had not slept; equally
plain that she had wept copiously. She sighed, she groaned, she drew in
her breath, she shook her head, as she waited on table. In short, she
seemed in so precarious a state, like a petard three times charged with
hysteria, that I did not dare to address her; and stole out of the house
on tiptoe, and actually ran downstairs, in the fear that she might call
me back. It was plain that this degree of tension could not last long.

It was my first care to go to George Street, which I reached (by good
luck) as a boy was taking down the bank shutters. A man was conversing
with him; he had white stockings and a moleskin waistcoat, and was as
ill-looking a rogue as you would want to see in a day's journey. This
seemed to agree fairly well with Rowley's _signalement_: he had declared
emphatically (if you remember), and had stuck to it besides, that the
companion of the great Lavender was no beauty.

Thence I made my way to Mr. Robbie's, where I rang the bell. A servant
answered the summons, and told me the lawyer was engaged, as I had half
expected.

"Wha shall I say was callin'?" she pursued: and when I had told her "Mr.
Ducie," "I think this'll be for you, then?" she added, and handed me a
letter from the hall table. It ran:--

"DEAR MR. DUCIE,

"My single advice to you is to leave _quam primum_ for the
South.--Yours,

T. ROBBIE."

That was short and sweet. It emphatically extinguished hope in one
direction. No more was to be gotten of Robbie; and I wondered, from my
heart, how much had been told him. Not too much, I hoped, for I liked
the lawyer who had thus deserted me, and I placed a certain reliance in
the discretion of Chevenix. He would not be merciful; on the other hand,
I did not think he would be cruel without cause.

It was my next affair to go back along George Street, and assure myself
whether the man in the moleskin vest was still on guard. There was no
sign of him on the pavement. Spying the door of a common stair nearly
opposite the bank, I took it in my head that this would be a good point
of observation, crossed the street, entered with a businesslike air, and
fell immediately against the man in the moleskin vest. I stopped and
apologised to him; he replied in an unmistakable English accent, thus
putting the matter almost beyond doubt. After this encounter I must, of
course, ascend to the top story, ring