letter did come into this house," he said calmly.

"Of course there is a difficulty about that. I shall have to send for Lismore and a London detective, as the post office people say it must have come here, and I don't want to have all that bother. And so I ask you to compromise the matter by discharging this lad without saying a word more than you are obliged as to the reason. Say you have altered your plans, and that you will recommend him to anyone in London."

"What! You want to convince me that the lad is dishonest, and then in the same breath ask me to recommend him to a stranger? No, my lady, I am a plain man, of straightforward dealing, and I could not do that to the poorest errand boy in my employ."

Then began the Irish jig once more. Lady Mary lost control of her temper, and said a good many things she would fain have left unsaid, and at last left Mr. Brading as perplexed as before, both with regard to Arthur and also as to what he had better do in his own business arrangements, if the news concerning the railway was true.

He sat for nearly ten minutes after the lady had left the room. And then he exclaimed:

"I wish I had never seen the woman! What am I to believe? What am I to do? I've a good mind to go and talk to Andrews about it. He knows me, and he knows these Murrays. He may be able to make something of this tangle, for it seems as though a Solomon was needed to unravel it."

If Mr. Brading had been curious, and had watched the movements of Lady Mary, he would have seen that she, too, went to consult a lawyer. But it was not to Mr. Andrews' office that she bent her steps. Her man of business was a Mr. Simmons, a much younger man, and people considered him much more clever. Certainly he was much sharper in his practices. Everybody admitted that.

But to Lady Mary's imperious demand to see Mr. Simmons without delay, the clerk replied: "He is not in just now, my lady."

"When will he be in?" she asked.

"Very soon now, my lady, I think."

"Very well; I am going home now. Tell him to come to me as soon as he comes in."

"Could you leave any instructions, my lady, in case Mr. Simmons should be late?" asked the clerk insinuatingly.

"What do you mean?" demanded Lady Mary, with a look of withering scorn. "I came to consult Mr. Simmons, and if he is not here, he must come to me!"

And saying this, the lady sailed out of the office just in time for Mr. Brading to see her cross the road, as he walked up the street to see Mr. Andrews.

"I am glad I decided to see a lawyer, since her ladyship is going to do the same thing," he muttered half-aloud as he went on.

He was more fortunate than Lady Mary had been with her legal adviser. Mr. Andrews was at his office, and quite ready to listen to Mr. Brading's rather long story, which he told by way of explaining how he came to be possessed of the news about the railway.

Mr. Andrews was a man of few words in general, but when he heard of the lady's visit to his rival, he rubbed his hands, and a smile broke slowly all over his face.

"I am not sure that the news is not worth more than a hundred pounds to me," he said. "Now what is your own particular business, Mr. Brading?" asked the lawyer.

"Well, if this particular railway is coming at last, I had better build my new factory as close to it as I can get the land. I was just planning to buy up those cottages on the opposite side of Kent Street, and place my factory there; but it would be infinitely better to have it close to the railway. You can see that, of course?"

"Certainly I can. It will be better in every way, for it would be a pity to pull down those cottages; and, moreover, I shall be glad to sell you a plot of land near the railway, if it only comes."

"Very well then. Mind, it is a promise that if this comes about, I am to have first chance of the land."

"Yes, you shall, Brading, if only for what you have done for Arthur Murray. The lad has grit, and you have given him a chance of proving it."

But Mr. Brading would not be drawn into discussing this topic.

"I must be going," he said. "I have been hindered a good deal already. Lady Mary and such folk have small idea of the value of time to a busy man, but you have, and I am not going to be tempted to talk to you any longer," he added with a laugh.

Mr. Andrews was a keen observer, and knew Mr. Brading well, and he detected something like a false ring in the laughter of his old friend. "There is a screw loose somewhere if I am not mistaken," he muttered to himself as he went back to his seat, after opening the door for Mr. Brading.

Then he touched the gong on his table, and a young clerk came in from the outer office. "Send Phillips to me," he said.

"Mr. Phillips is just going to his dinner, sir."

"Run after him, then, and tell him I want to see him first," said Mr. Andrews.

The old clerk, who knew all the secrets of the office as well as Mr. Andrews did himself, came back the next minute.

"I want a word with you," said Mr. Andrews, "before you go out. Sit down for a moment. Have you heard any talk of the new railway lately?"

The man smiled, and shook his head. "That is as dead as a door-nail," he said in a lower tone.

"Not if what I have heard this morning is true. Now I want you to send a confidential telegram to Barclay about this. He will understand what I mean, but they won't at the post office, and you understand I don't want the news to be the town talk yet."

The old man nodded. "It will make a deal of difference to this office if it should be true," he remarked.

"Yes, it will. But I also want to find out which of the two lads is making himself the talk of the place over that new billiard saloon. Do you think you could find out for me whether it is Lady Mary's son or the lad that will be benefited if this railway comes through the town? Lady Mary's son is a little chap, thin and delicate-looking, but our lad is a tall, strapping fellow. Be particular that you do not confuse the one with the other, and if it is necessary to spend a little money in pressing the enquiry, it can go down as office expenses. You understand, Phillips?"

"Oh, yes, sir! I think I know what you want, and you may trust me for making sure of my facts before I bring you the information."

Then Mr. Andrews wrote his telegram to a confidential agent in London, and before he left the office to return home that evening he heard that the information he had received might be relied upon. So that now it only depended upon the report he heard as to how Arthur was spending his time in the evenings, whether he should exercise all his skill and power to rescue the property that nominally belonged to him, or whether he should let things drift to the end that was inevitable—foreclosure by those who held it as security for money lent, that had simply been wasted in idle indulgence by its late owners.