248
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
"Be so good to hand my lawyer, Mr. Jos Larkin, of
the Lodge Gylingden, 200/. sterling, on my account.
"Yours, dear Lake,
"Very faithfully,
200/. "M. Wylder.
"23rd Feb: &c. &c."
When Jos Larkin presented this little order, it was in
the handsome square room in which Captain Lake trans-
acted business — a lofty apartment, wainscotted in carved
oak, and with a great stone mantelpiece, with the Wylder
arms, projecting in bold relief, in the centre, and a florid
scroll with IX&jf^lilE^llJJl standing forth as sharp as the
day it was chiselled, nearly three hundred years before.
There was some other business — Brandon business —
to be talked over first; and that exhausted, Mr. Larkin
sat, as usual, with one long thigh crossed upon the other —
his arm thrown over the back of his chair, and his tall,
bald head a little back, and his small, mild eyes twinkling
through their pink lids on the enigmatical Captain.
"I had a line from Mr. Mark Wylder yesterday
afternoon, as usual without any address but the post-
mark;" and good Mr. Larkin laughed a mild, little pa-
tient laugh, and lifted his open hand, and shook his head.
"It really is growing too absurd — a mere order upon
you to hand me 200/. How I'm to dispose of it, I have
not the faintest notion."
And he laughed again; at the same time he gracefully
poked the little note, between two fingers, to Captain
Lake, who glanced full on him, for a second, as he took
it.
"And how is Mark," enquired Lake, with his odd, sly
Bmile, as he scrawled a little endorsement on the order.
"Does he say anything?"