it Yes, Mr. Frank, or No?"

"Hang your questions!" cries Mr. Frank, jumping up; "you know it's Yes ten
thousand times over. Only you earn the money and----"

"And you will be too glad to give it to me. Very good. Now go home.
Comfort the young lady--don't let Mr. Davager so much as set eyes on
you--keep quiet--leave everything to me--and feel as certain as you please
that all the letters in the world can't stop your being married on
Wednesday."

With these words I hustled him off out of the office, for I wanted to be
left alone to make my mind up about what I should do.

The first thing, of course, was to have a look at the enemy. I wrote to
Mr. Davager, telling him that I was privately appointed to arrange the
little business matter between himself and "another party" (no names!) on
friendly terms; and begging him to call on me at his earliest convenience.

At the very beginning of the case, Mr. Davager bothered me. His answer
was, that it would not be convenient to him to call till between six and
seven in the evening. In this way, you see, he contrived to make me lose
several precious hours, at a time when minutes almost were of importance.
I had nothing for it but to be patient, and to give certain instructions,
before Mr. Davager came, to my boy Tom.

There never was such a sharp boy of fourteen before, and there never will
be again, as my boy Tom. A spy to look after Mr. Davager was, of course,
the first requisite in a case of this kind; and Tom was the smallest,
quickest, quietest, sharpest, stealthiest little snake of a chap that ever
dogged a gentleman's steps and kept cleverly out of range of a gentleman's
eyes.

I settled it with the boy that he was not to show at all when Mr. Davager
came; and that he was to wait to hear me ring the bell when Mr. Davager
left. If I rang twice, he was to show the gentleman out. If I rang once,
he was to keep out of the way, and follow the gentleman wherever he went
till he got back to the inn. Those were the only preparations I could make
to begin with; being obliged to wait, and let myself be guided by what
turned up.

About a quarter to seven my gentleman came.

In the profession of the law we get somehow quite remarkably mixed up with
ugly people, blackguard people, and dirty people. But far away the ugliest
and dirtiest blackguard I ever saw in my life was Mr. Alfred Davager. He
had greasy, white hair and a mottled face. He was low in the forehead, fat
in the s