sure conviction
that Bellairs had done better, or he had still been here and still
cultivating Mr. Denman.

I had escaped the grounds and the cattle; I could not escape the house.
A lady with silver hair, a slender silver voice, and a stream of
insignificant information not to be diverted, led me through the picture
gallery, the music-room, the great dining-room, the long drawing-room,
the Indian room, the theatre, and every corner (as I thought) of that
interminable mansion. There was but one place reserved, the garden-room,
whither Lady Ann had now retired. I paused a moment on the outside of
the door, and smiled to myself. The situation was indeed strange, and
these thin boards divided the secret of the _Flying Scud_.

All the while, as I went to and fro, I was considering the visit and
departure of Bellairs. That he had got the address, I was quite certain;
that he had not got it by direct questioning, I was convinced; some
ingenuity, some lucky accident, had served him. A similar chance, an
equal ingenuity, was required; or I was left helpless; the ferret must
run down his prey, the great oaks fall, the Raphaels be scattered, the
house let to some stockbroker suddenly made rich, and the name which now
filled the mouths of five or six parishes dwindle to a memory. Strange
that such great matters, so old a mansion, a family so ancient and so
dull, should come to depend for perpetuity upon the intelligence, the
discretion, and the cunning of a Latin-Quarter student! What Bellairs
had done, I must do likewise. Chance or ingenuity, ingenuity or
chance--so I continued to ring the changes as I walked down the avenue,
casting back occasional glances at the red brick facade and the
twinkling windows of the house. How was I to command chance? where was I
to find the ingenuity?

These reflections brought me to the door of the inn. And here, pursuant
to my policy of keeping well with all men, I immediately smoothed my
brow, and accepted (being the only guest in the house) an invitation to
dine with the family in the bar-parlour. I sat down accordingly with Mr.
Higgs, the ex-butler, Mrs. Higgs, the ex-lady's-maid, and Miss Agnes
Higgs, their frowsy-headed little girl, the least promising and (as the
event showed) the most useful of the lot. The talk ran endlessly on the
great house and the great family; the roast beef, the Yorkshire pudding,
the jam-roll, and the cheddar cheese came and went, and still the stream
flowed on;