382
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
self, only I'm such a bad judge; but you'll choose it for
me, won't you? and let me see it on you when next I
come." and with a courtesy and a great beaming smile on
her hot face, she accepted the five-pound note, which he
placed in her hand.
In another moment the Captain was gone. He had
just time to swallow a cup of coffee at the "Terminus
Hotel," and was gliding away towards the distant walls
of Brandon Hall.
He had a coupe all to himself. But he did not care
for the prospect. He saw Lawyer Larkin, as it were,
reflected in the plate-glass, with his hollow smile and
hungry eyes before him, knowing more than he should do,
paying him compliments, and plotting his ruin.
While Stanley Lake is thus scanning the shabby, but
dangerous image of the attorney in the magic mirror be-
fore him, that eminent limb of the law was not inactive
in the quiet town of Gylingden. Under ordinary circum-
stances his "pride" would have condemned the Vicar to
a direful term of suspense, and he certainly would not
have knocked at the door of the pretty little gabled house
at the Dollington end of the town for many days to come.
The Vicar would have had to seek out the attorney, to lie
in wait for and to woo him.
But Jos Larkin's pride, like all his other passions —
except his weakness for the precious metals — was under
proper regulation. Jim Dutton might arrive at any mo-
ment, and it would not do to risk his publishing the mel-
ancholy intelligence of Mark Wylder's death before the
transfer of the Vicar's reversion; and to prevent that risk
the utmost promptitude was indispensable.
At nine o'clock, therefore, he presented himself, attend-
ed by his legal henchmen as before. He entered pointedly
and briefly into Miss Lake's offer, which he characterised