468
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
duct has been more than kind — quite noble — wished to
place in your client's hands."
"That,'" said the attorney, flushing a little, "I believe
to have been technically impossible; and it was accompani-
ed by a proposition which was on other grounds untena-
ble."
"You mean Miss Lake's proposed residence here — an
arrangement, it appears to me, every way most desira-
ble."
"I objected to it on, I will say, moral grounds, my
Lord. It is painful to me to disclose what I know, but
that young lady accompanied Mr. Mark Wylder, my
Lord, in his midnight flight from Dollington, and remained
in London, under, I presume, his protection for some
time."
"That statement, sir, is, I happen to know, utterly
contrary to fact. The young lady you mention never
even saw Mr. Mark Wylder, since she took leave of him
in the drawing-room at Brandon; and I state this not in
vindication of her, but to lend weight to the caution I give
you against ever again presuming to connect her name
with your surmises."
The peer's countenance was so inexpressibly stern, and
his eyes poured such a stream of fire upon the attorney,
that he shrank a little, and looked down upon his great
fingers which were drumming, let us hope, some sacred
music upon the table.
"I am truly rejoiced, my Lord, to hear you say so.
Except to the young party herself, and in this presence, I
have never mentioned it; and I can show you the evidence
on which my conclusions rested."
"Thank you — no sir; my evidence is conclusive."
I don't know what Mr. Larkin would have thought of
it; it was simply Rachel's letter to her friend Dolly
Wylder on the subject of the attorney's conference with