(Pedgift checked off the next point: Person in morrow morning. In the mean time here's the the case. She-person, or he-person? She-per- soup. The case now before the court is-Pleas son unquestionably!) "Well, I went to the ure versus Business: I don't know what you house, and when I asked for her-I mean the say, Sir; I say, without a moment's hesitation, person-she-that is to say, the person-oh, Verdict for the plaintiff. Let us gather our confound it!" cried Allan, "I shall drive my-rose-buds while we may. Excuse my high spirself mad, and you too, if I try to tell my story in this roundabout way. Here it is in two words. I went to number eighteen Kingsdown Crescent, to see a lady named Mandeville; and when I asked for her, the servant said Mrs. Mandeville had gone away, without telling any body where, and without even leaving an address at which letters could be sent to her. There! it's out at last, and what do you think of it now ?"

"Tell me first, Sir," said the wary Pedgift, "what inquiries you made when you found this lady had vanished ?"

"Inquiries?" repeated Allan, "I was utterly staggered; I didn't say any thing. What in quiries ought I to have made?"

Pedgift Junior cleared his throat, and crossed his legs in a strictly professional manner.

"I have no wish, Mr. Armadale," he began, "to inquire into your business with Mrs. Mandeville-"

"No," interposed Allan, bluntly, "I hope you won't inquire into that. My business with Mrs. Mandeville must remain a secret."

its, Mr. Armadale. Though buried in the coun-
try, I was made for a London life; the very air
of the metropolis intoxicates me." With that
avowal the irresistible Pedgift placed a chair for
his patron, and issued his orders cheerfully to
his viceroy, the head-waiter.
"Iced punch,
William, after the soup. I answer for the
punch, Mr. Armadale-it's made after a receipt
of my great uncle's. He kept a tavern, and
founded the fortunes of the family. I don't
mind telling you the Pedgifts have had a pub-
lican among them; there's no false pride about
'Worth makes the man (as Pope says),
and want of it the fellow; the rest is all but
leather and prunella.' I cultivate poetry as well
as music, Sir, in my leisure hours; in fact, I'm
more or less on familiar terms with the whole
of the nine Muses. Aha! here's the punch!
The memory of my great uncle, the publican,
Mr. Armadale-drunk in solemn silence!"

me.

Allan tried hard to emulate his companion's gayety and good-humor, but with very indifferent success. His visit to Kingsdown Crescent recurred ominously again and again to his memory, all through the dinner, and all through the

"But," pursued Pedgift, laying down the law with the forefinger of one hand on the out-public amusements to which he and his legal stretched palm of the other, "I may, perhaps, be allowed to ask generally, whether your business with Mrs. Mandeville is of a nature to interest you in tracing her from Kingsdown Crescent to her present residence?"

"Certainly!" said Allan. "I have a very particular reason for wishing to see her."

"In that case, Sir," returned Pedgift Junior, "there were two obvious questions which you ought to have asked, to begin with-namely, on what date Mrs. Mandeville left, and how she left. Having discovered this, you should have ascertained next under what domestic circumstances she went away-whether there was a misunderstanding with any body; say a difficulty about money-matters. Also, whether she went away alone, or with somebody else. Also, whether the house was her own, or whether she only lodged in it. Also, in the latter event-" "Stop! stop! you're making my head swim," cried Allan. "I don't understand all these ins and outs-I'm not used to this sort of thing."

"I've been used to it myself from my childhood upward, Sir," remarked Pedgift. "And if I can be of any assistance, say the word."

adviser repaired at a later hour of the evening. When Pedgift Junior put out his candle that night he shook his wary head, and regretfully apostrophized "the women" for the second time.

To

By ten o'clock the next morning the indefatigable Pedgift was on the scene of action. Allan's great relief he proposed making the necessary inquiries at Kingsdown Crescent in his own person, while his patron waited near at hand in the cab which had brought them from the hotel. After a delay of little more than five minutes, he reappeared, in full possession of all attainable particulars. His first proceeding was to request Allan to step out of the cab and to pay the driver. Next, he politely offered his arm, and led the way round the corner of the crescent, across a square, and into a by-street, which was rendered exceptionally lively by the presence of the local cab-stand. Here he stopped, and asked jocosely, whether Mr. Armadale saw his way now, or whether it would be necessary to test his patience by making an explanation.

"See my way?" repeated Allan, in bewil"You're very kind," returned Allan. "If derment. "I see nothing but a cab-stand." you could only help me to find Mrs. Mandeville; and if you wouldn't mind leaving the thing after-entered on his explanation. It was a lodgingward entirely in my hands-?"

Pedgift Junior smiled compassionately, and

house at Kingsdown Crescent, he begged to "I'll leave it in your hands, Sir, with all the state, to begin with. He had insisted on seepleasure in life," said Pedgift Junior. ("And ing the landlady. A very nice person, with all I'll lay five to one," he added, mentally, "when the remains of having been a fine girl about the time comes, you'll leave it in mine!") "We'll fifty years ago; quite in Pedgift's style-if he go to Bayswater together, Mr. Armadale, to- had only been alive at the beginning of the pres

ent century-quite in Pedgift's style. But per- shut, and the front blinds were all drawn down. haps Mr. Armadale would prefer hearing about It looked no larger than the other houses in the Mrs. Mandeville? Unfortunately there was no- street, seen in front; but it ran back deceitfulthing to tell. There had been no quarreling,ly, and gained its greater accommodation by and not a farthing left unpaid: the lodger had means of its greater depth. It affected to be a gone, and there wasn't an explanatory circum-shop on the ground-floor; but it exhibited abstance to lay hold of any where. It was either solutely nothing in the space that intervened Mrs. Mandeville's way to vanish, or there was between the window and an inner row of red something under the rose, quite undiscoverable curtains which hid the interior entirely from so far. Pedgift had got the date on which she view. At one side was the shop-door, having left, and the time of day at which she left, and more red curtains behind the glazed part of it, the means by which she left. The means might and bearing a brass plate on the wooden part of help to trace her. She had gone away in a cab, it, inscribed with the name of "Oldershaw." which the servant had fetched from the nearest On the other side was the private door, with stand. The stand was now before their eyes; a bell marked Professional; and another brass and the waterman was the first person to apply plate indicating a medical occupant on this side to-going to the waterman for information be- of the house, for the name on it was "Doctor ing clearly (if Mr. Armadale would excuse the Downward." If ever brick and mortar spoke joke) going to the fountain-head. Treating the yet, the brick and mortar here said plainly, "We subject in this airy manner, and telling Allan have got our secrets inside, and we mean to that he would be back in a moment, Pedgift keep them.” Junior sauntered down the street and beckoned the waterman confidentially into the nearest public house.

In a little while the two reappeared; the waterman taking Pedgift in succession to the first, third, fourth, and sixth of the cabmen whose vehicles were on the stand. The longest conference was held with the sixth man; and it ended in the sudden approach of the sixth cab to the part of the street where Allan was waiting.

"Get in, Sir," said Pedgift, opening the door, "I've found the man. He remembers the lady; and, though he has forgotten the name of the street, he believes he can find the place he drove her to when he once gets back into the neighborhood. I am charmed to inform you, Mr. Armadale, that we are in luck's way so far. I asked the waterman to show me the regular men on the stand-and it turns out that one of the regular men drove Mrs. Mandeville. terman vouches for him; he's quite an anomalya respectable cabman; drives his own horse, and has never been in any trouble. These are the sort of men, Sir, who sustain one's belief in human nature. I've had a look at our friend, and I agree with the waterman-I think we can depend on him.”

The wa

The investigation required some exercise of patience at the outset. It was not till the cab had traversed the distance between Bayswater and Pimlico that the driver began to slacken his pace and look about him. After once or twice retracing its course, the vehicle entered a quiet by-street, ending in a dead wall with a door in it; and stopped at the last house on the lefthand side, the house next to the wall.

"This can't be the place," said Allan; "there must be some mistake."

"You know best, Sir," remarked Pedgift Junior, with his sardonic gravity. "You know Mrs. Mandeville's habits."

"I!" exclaimed Allan. "You may be surprised to hear it, but Mrs. Mandeville is a total stranger to me."

"I'm not in the least surprised to hear it, Sir; the landlady at Kingsdown Crescent informed me that Mrs. Mandeville was an old woman. Suppose we inquire?" added the impenetrable Pedgift, looking at the red curtains in the shop-window with a strong suspicion that Mrs. Mandeville's grand-daughter might possibly be behind them.

They tried the shop-door first. It was locked. They rang. A lean and yellow young woman, with a tattered French novel in her hand, opened it.

"Good-morning, miss!" said Pedgift. "Is Mrs. Mandeville at home?"

The yellow young woman stared at him in astonishment. "No person of that name is known here," she answered, sharply, in a foreign accent.

"Perhaps they know her at the private door?" suggested Pedgift Junior.

"Perhaps they do?" said the yellow young woman, and shut the door in his face.

"Rather a quick-tempered young person that, Sir," said Pedgift. "I congratulate Mrs. Mandeville on not being acquainted with her." He led the way as he spoke to Doctor Downward's side of the premises, and rang the bell.

The door was opened this time by a man in a shabby livery. He too stared when Mrs. Man

"Here it is, gentlemen," said the man, open- deville's name was mentioned; and he too knew ing the cab-door. of no such person in the house.

Allan and Allan's adviser both got out and both looked at the house with the same feeling of instinctive distrust. Buildings have their physiognomy-especially buildings in great citiesand the face of this house was essentially furtive in its expression. The front windows were all

lan.

"Very odd," said Pedgift, appealing to Al

"What is odd ?" asked a softly-stepping, softly-speaking gentleman in black, suddenly appearing on the threshold of the parlor-door.

Pedgift Junior politely explained the circum

stances, and begged to know whether he had the pleasure of speaking to Doctor Downward.

mistaking the person, or the day, or the house at which he had taken the person up, the cabThe doctor bowed. If the expression may be man proved to be still unassailable. The servpardoned, he was one of those carefully-con-ant who fetched him was marked as a girl well structed physicians in whom the public-espe- known on the stand. The day was marked as cially the female public-implicitly trust. He the unluckiest working day he had had since had the necessary bald head, the necessary dou- the first of the year; and the lady was marked ble eyeglass, the necessary black clothes, and as having had her money ready at the right mothe necessary blandness of manner, all com- ment (which not one elderly lady in a hundred plete. His voice was soothing, his ways were usually had), and having paid him his fare on dedeliberate, his smile was confidential. What mand, without disputing it (which not one elderparticular branch of his profession Doctor Down- ly lady in a hundred usually did). "Take my ward followed was not indicated on his door- number, gentlemen," concluded the cabman, plate; but he had utterly mistaken his vocation "and pay me for my time; and what I've said if he was not a ladies' medical man. to you I'll swear to any where."

"Are you quite sure there is no mistake about the name ?" asked the doctor, with a strong underlying anxiety in his manner. "I have known very serious inconvenience to arise sometimes from mistakes about names. No? There is really no mistake? In that case, gentlemen, I can only repeat what my servant has already told you. Don't apologize, pray. Goodmorning." The doctor withdrew as noiselessly as he had appeared; the man in the shabby livery silently opened the door; and Allan and his companion found themselves in the street again.

"Mr. Armadale," said Pedgift, "I don't know how you feel-I feel puzzled."

"That's awkward," returned Allan; "I was just going to ask you what we ought to do next."

"I don't like the look of the place, the look of the shopwoman, or the look of the doctor," pursued the other. And yet I can't say I think they are deceiving us-I can't say I think they really do know Mrs. Mandeville's name."

The impressions of Pedgift Junior seldom misled him; and they had not misled him in this case. The caution which had dictated Mrs. Oldershaw's private removal from Bayswater was the caution which frequently overreaches itself. It had warned her to trust nobody at Pimlico with the secret of the name she had assumed as Miss Gwilt's reference; but it had entirely failed to prepare her for the emergency that had really happened. In a word, Mrs. Oldershaw had provided for every thing except for the one unimaginable contingency of an after-inquiry into the character of Miss Gwilt.

"We must do something," said Allan; "it seems useless to stop here."

Nobody had ever yet caught Pedgift Junior at the end of his resources; and Allan failed to catch him at the end of them now. "I quite agree with you, Sir," he said; "we must do something. We'll cross-examine the cabman."

The cabman proved to be immovable. Charged with mistaking the place, he pointed to the empty shop-window. "I don't know what you may have seen, gentleman," he remarked; "but there's the only shop-window I ever saw with nothing at all inside it. That fixed the place in my mind at the time, and I know it again when I see it." Charged with

Pedgift made a note in his pocket-book of the man's number. Having added to it the name of the street, and the names on the two brass plates, he quietly opened the cab-door. "We are quite in the dark, thus far," he said. "Suppose we grope our way back to the hotel ?"

He spoke and looked more seriously than usual. The mere fact of "Mrs. Mandeville's" having changed her lodging without telling any one where she was going, and without leaving any address at which letters could be forwarded to her-which the jealous malignity of Mrs. Milroy had interpreted as being undeniably suspicious in itself-had produced no great impression on the more impartial judgment of Allan's solicitor. People frequently left their lodgings in a private manner, with perfectly producible rea sons for doing so. But the appearance of the place to which the cabman persisted in declaring that he had driven "Mrs. Mandeville" set the character and proceedings of that mysterious lady before Pedgift Junior in a new light. His personal interest in the inquiry suddenly strengthened, and he began to feel a curiosity to know the real nature of Allan's business which he had not felt yet.

8.

"Our next move, Mr. Armadale, is not a very easy move to see," he said, as they drove back to the hotel. "Do you think you could put me in possession of any further particulars ?"

Allan hesitated; and Pedgift Junior saw that he had advanced a little too far. "I mustn't force it," he thought; "I must give it time, and let it come of its own accord. In the absence of any other information, Sir," he resumed, "what do you say to my making some inquiry about that queer shop, and about those two names on the door-plate? My business in London, when I leave you, is of a professional nature; and I am going into the right quarter for getting information, if it is to be got."

"There can't be any harm, I suppose, in making inquiries," replied Allan.

He, too, spoke more seriously than usual; he, too, was beginning to feel an all-mastering curiosity to know more. Some vague connection, not to be distinctly realized or traced out, began to establish itself in his mind between the difficulty of approaching Miss Gwilt's family circumstances and the difficulty of approaching Miss Gwilt's reference. "I'll get down and

walk, and leave you to go on to your business," | questions," he resumed. "I'm a bad hand at he said. "I want to consider a little about defending myself against a sharp fellow like this; and a walk and a cigar will help me." you; and I'm bound in honor toward other people to keep the particulars of this business to myself."

and whose position now imposed on her the dreadful necessity of perpetual secrecy and perpetual deceit in relation to her past life-such was the aspect in which the beautiful govern"Yes; there is another person," said Allan, ess at Thorpe-Ambrose now stood revealed to answering rather unwillingly.

and perpetual deceit in relation to her past life? | could spare and to the compassion that could It did. Was she some such pitiable victim to the treachery of a man unknown as Allan had supposed? She was no such pitiable victim. The conclusion which Allan had drawn-the conclusion literally forced into his mind by the facts before him-was, nevertheless, the conclusion of all others that was farthest even from touching on the truth. The true story of Miss Gwilt's connection with the house in Pimlico and the people who inhabited it—a house rightly described as filled with wicked secrets, and people rightly represented as perpetually in danger of feeling the grasp of the law-was a story which coming events were yet to disclose; a story infinitely less revolting, and yet infinitely more terrible, than Allan or Allan's companion had either of them supposed.

"I tried to spare you, Mr. Armadale,” repeated Pedgift. "I was anxious, if I could possibly avoid it, not to distress you."

Allan looked up and made an effort to control himself. "You have distressed me dreadfully," he said. "You have quite crushed me down. But it is not your fault. I ought to feel you have done me a service; and what I ought to do I will do, when I am my own man again. There is one thing," Allan added, after a moment's painful consideration, "which ought to be understood between us at once. The advice you offered me just now was very kindly meant, and it was the best advice that could be given. I will take it gratefully. We will never talk of this again, if you please; and I beg and entreat you will never speak about it to any other person. Will you promise me that?"

Pedgift gave the promise with very evident sincerity, but without his professional confidence of manner. The distress in Allan's face seemed to daunt him. After a moment of very uncharacteristic hesitation he considerately quitted the room.

shield her. "I can't go back to Thorpe-Ambrose; I can't trust myself to speak to her or to see her again. But I can keep her miserable secret-and I will!" With that thought in his heart Allan set himself to perform the first and foremost duty which now claimed him-the duty of communicating with Mrs. Milroy. If he had possessed a higher mental capacity and a clearer mental view he might have found the letter no easy one to write. As it was, he cal culated no consequences and felt no difficulty. His instinct warned him to withdraw at once from the position in which he now stood toward the major's wife, and he wrote what his instinct counseled him to write under those circumstances as rapidly as the pen could travel over the paper:

"DUNN'S HOTEL, COVENT GARDEN, Tuesday.
"DEAR MADAM,-Pray excuse my not re-
turning to Thorpe-Ambrose to-day, as I said I
would. Unforeseen circumstances oblige me to
stop in London. I am sorry to say I have not
succeeded in seeing Mrs. Mandeville, for which
reason I can not perform your errand; and I
beg, therefore, with many apologies, to return
the letter of introduction. I hope you will al-
low me to conclude by saying that I am very
much obliged to you for your kindness, and
that I will not venture to trespass on it any fur-
ther.

"I remain, dear madam, yours truly,
"ALLAN ARMADALE."

In those artless words, still entirely unsuspicious of the character of the woman he had to deal with, Allan put the weapon she wanted into Mrs. Milroy's hands.

The letter and its inclosure once sealed up and addressed, he was free to think of himself and his future. As he sat idly drawing lines with his pen on the blotting-paper the tears came into his eyes for the first time-tears in which the woman who had deceived him had

His heart had gone back to his dead "If she had been alive," he thought, "I might have trusted her, and she would have comforted me." It was useless to dwell on it; he dashed away the tears, and turned his thoughts, with the heart-sick resignation that we all know, to living and present things.

Left by himself, Allan rang for writing materials, and took out of his pocket-book the fatal | no share. letter of introduction to "Mrs. Mandeville" mother. which he had received from the major's wife. A man accustomed to consider consequences and to prepare himself for action by previous thought would, in Allan's present circumstances, have felt some difficulty as to the course which it might now be least embarrassing and least dangerous to pursue. Accustomed to let his impulses direct him on all other occasions, Allan acted on impulse in the serious emergency that now confronted him. Though his attachment to Miss Gwilt was nothing like the deeplyrooted feeling which he had himself honestly believed it to be, she had taken no common place in his admiration, and she filled him with no common grief when he thought of her now. His one dominant desire at that critical moment in his life was a man's merciful desire to protect from exposure and ruin the unhappy woman who had lost her place in his estimation, without losing her claim to the forbearance that

He wrote a line to Mr. Bashwood, briefly informing the deputy steward that his absence from Thorpe-Ambrose was likely to be prolonged for some little time, and that any further instructions which might be necessary, under those circumstances, would reach him through Mr. Pedgift the elder. This done, and the letters sent to the post, his thoughts were forced back once more on himself. Again the blank future waited before him to be filled up; and again his heart shrank from it to the refuge of the past.

This time other images than the image of his mother filled his mind. The one all-absorbing interest of his earlier days stirred living and eager in him again. He thought of the sea;