t he particularly wished to see him, especially about the
Honham Castle estates. Accordingly Mr. Quest drove on to the old
gentleman's mansion in Grosvenor Street, where he asked for Mr. Edward
Cossey. The footman said that Mr. Edward was upstairs, and showed him
to a study while he went to tell him of the arrival of his visitor.
Mr. Quest glanced round the luxuriously-furnished room, which he saw
was occupied by Edward himself, for some letters directed in his
handwriting lay upon the desk, and a velveteen lounging coat that Mr.
Quest recognised as belonging to him was hanging over the back of a
chair. Mr. Quest's eye wandering over this coat, was presently caught
by the corner of a torn flap of an envelope which projected from one
of the pockets. It was of a peculiar bluish tinge, in fact of a hue
much affected by his wife. Listening for a moment to hear if anybody
was coming, he stepped to the coat and extracted the letter. It /was/
in his wife's handwriting, so he took the liberty of hastily
transferring it to his own pocket.

In another minute Edward Cossey entered, and the two men shook hands.

"How do you do, Quest?" said Edward. "I think that the old man is
going to pull through this bout. He is helpless but keen as a knife,
and has all the important matters from the bank referred to him. I
believe that he will last a year yet, but he will scarcely allow me
out of his sight. He preaches away about business the whole day long
and says that he wants to communicate the fruits of his experience to
me before it is too late. He wishes to see you, so if you will you had
better come up."

Accordingly they went upstairs to a large and luxurious bedroom on the
first floor, where the stricken man lay upon a patent couch.

When Mr. Quest and Edward Cossey entered, a lady, old Mr. Cossey's
eldest daughter, put down a paper out of which she had been reading
the money article aloud, and, rising, informed her father that Mr.
Quest had come.

"Mr. Quest?" said the old man in a high thin voice. "Ah, yes, I want
to see Mr. Quest very much. Go away now, Anna, you can come back by-
and-by, business before pleasure--most instructive, though, that
sudden fall in American railways. But I thought it would come and I
got Cossey's clear of them," and he sniffed with satisfaction and
looked as though he would have rubbed his hands if he had not been
physically incapacitated from so doing.

Mr. Quest came forward to where the invalid