384
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
The position of the good attorney, therefore, in a com-
mercial point of view, was eminently healthy and con-
venient. For less than half the value of Five Oaks alone,
he was getting that estate, and a vastly greater one beside,
to be succeeded to on Mark Wylder's death.
It is, not to be supposed, that having got one momentous
matter well off his mind, the good attorney was to be long
rid of anxieties. The human mind is fertile in that sort
of growth. One crop of cares will always succeed another
— not very oppressive, nor in any wise grand, perhaps —
worries. simply, no more; and this must go on so long as
the state of man is imperfect, and plenty of possible evil
in futurity.
The attorney must run up to London for a day or two.
What if that mysterious, and almost illegible brute, James
Dutton, should arrive while he was away. Very unpleas-
ant, possibly! For the attorney intended to keep that gen-
tleman very quiet. Sufficient time must be allowed to in-
tervene to disconnect the purchase of the Vicar's remaind-
er from the news of Mark Wylder s demise. A year and
a-half, maybe, or possibly a year might do. For if the
good attorney was cautious, he was also greedy, and would
take possession as early as was safe. Therefore arrange-
ments were carefully adjusted to detain that important
person, in the event of his arriving; and a note, in thp
good attorney's hand, invited him to remain at the Lodge
till his return, and particularly requested that " he would
kindly abstain from mentioning to anyone, during his
absence, any matter he might intend to communicate to
him in his professional capacity or otherwise.''
In the meantime our friend, Captain Lake, arrived in
a hired fly, with his light baggage, at the door of stately
Brandon. So soon as the dust and ashes of railway travel
Were removed, the pale Captain, in changed attire, snowy