his long-suffering
banker, on whom he reasonably doubted whether he should be allowed any
longer to draw. When Lady Clavering asked the next morning whether Sir
Francis was in the house, she received answer that he had not returned
that night, but had sent a messenger to his valet, ordering him to
forward clothes and letters by the bearer. Strong knew that he should
have a visit or a message from him in the course of that or the
subsequent day, and accordingly got a note beseeching him to call upon
his distracted friend F. C. at Short Hotel, Blackfriars, and ask for Mr.
Francis there. For the Baronet was a gentleman of that peculiarity
of mind that he would rather tell a lie than not, and always began a
contest with fortune by running away and hiding himself. The Boots of
Mr. Short's establishment, who carried Clavering's message to Grosvenor
Place, and brought back his carpet-bag, was instantly aware who was the
owner of the bag, and he imparted his information to the footman who
was laying the breakfast-table, who carried down the news to the
servants'-hall, who took it to Mrs. Bonner, my lady's housekeeper and
confidential maid, who carried it to my lady. And thus every single
person in the Grosvenor Place establishment knew that Sir Francis was
in hiding, under the name of Francis, at an inn in the Blackfriars Road.
And Sir Francis's coachman told the news to other gentlemen's coachmen,
who carried it to their masters, and to the neighbouring Tattersall's,
where very gloomy anticipations were formed that Sir Francis Clavering
was about to make a tour in the Levant.

In the course of that day the number of letters addressed to Sir Francis
Clavering, Bart., which found their way to his hall-table, was quite
remarkable. The French cook sent in his account to my lady; the
tradesmen who supplied her ladyship's table, and Messrs. Finer and
Gimcrack, the mercers and ornamental dealers, and Madame Crinoline, the
eminent milliner, also forwarded their little bills to her ladyship,
in company with Miss Amory's private, and by no means inconsiderable,
account at each establishment.

In the afternoon of the day after the Derby, when Strong (after a
colloquy with his principal at Short's Hotel, whom he found crying and
drinking Curacoa) called to transact business according to his custom at
Grosvenor Place, he found all these suspicious documents ranged in the
Baronet's study; and began to open them and examine them with a rue