d
George, of course. She is a nasty evil-minded creature--suspecting
everything."

"I hope there has been nothing disagreeable."

"It was very disagreeable, indeed, while George was away. Of course I
did not care so much when he came back." The Dean, who had been almost
frightened, was reassured when he learned that there had been no
quarrel between the husband and wife. Soon afterwards Lord George came
in and was astonished to find that his letter had brought up the Dean
so quickly. No discussion took place till after dinner, but then the
Dean was very perspicuous, and at the same time very authoritative. It
was in vain that Lord George asked what they could do, and declared
that the evil troubles which must probably arise would all rest on his
brother's head. "But we must prevent such troubles, let them rest where
they will," said the Dean.

"I don't see what we can do."

"Nor do I, because we are not lawyers. A lawyer will tell us at once.
It will probably be our duty to send a commissioner out to Italy to
make enquiry."

"I shouldn't like to do that about my brother."

"Of course your brother should be told; or rather everything should be
told to your brother's lawyer, so that he might be advised what steps
he ought to take. We would do nothing secretly--nothing of which any
one could say that we ought to be ashamed." The Dean proposed that they
should both go to his attorney, Mr. Battle, on the following day; but
this step seemed to Lord George to be such an absolute declaration of
war that he begged for another day's delay; and it was at last arranged
that he himself should on that intervening day call on Mr. Stokes, the
Germain family lawyer. The Marquis, with one of his jeers, had told his
brother that, being a younger brother, he was not entitled to have a
lawyer. But in truth Lord George had had very much more to do with Mr.
Stokes than the Marquis. All the concerns of the family had been
managed by Mr. Stokes. The Marquis probably meant to insinuate that the
family bill, which was made out perhaps once every three years, was
charged against his account. Lord George did call on Mr. Stokes, and
found Mr. Stokes very little disposed to give him any opinion. Mr.
Stokes was an honest man who disliked trouble of this kind. He freely
admitted that there was ground for enquiry, but did not think that he
himself was the man who ought to make it. He would certainly
communicate with the Marquis, should Lord Geor