s well. Now I have
left the cottage, I have no women's prying eyes to dread, and I can come
and go as I please. Mr. Midwinter is luckily out of the way. I don't
despair of becoming Mrs. Armadale yet. Whatever happens, depend on my
keeping away from London until I am certain of not taking any spies
after me to your place. I am in no hurry to leave Thorpe Ambrose. I mean
to be even with Miss Milroy first."

Shortly after that message was received in London, Allan was back again
in his own house.

It was evening--Pedgift Junior had just left him--and Pedgift Senior was
expected to call on business in half an hour's time.

V. PEDGIFT'S REMEDY.

After waiting to hold a preliminary consultation with his son, Mr.
Pedgift the elder set forth alone for his interview with Allan at the
great house.

Allowing for the difference in their ages, the son was, in this
instance, so accurately the reflection of the father, that an
acquaintance with either of the two Pedgifts was almost equivalent to an
acquaintance with both. Add some little height and size to the figure
of Pedgift Junior, give more breadth and boldness to his humor, and some
additional solidity and composure to his confidence in himself, and
the presence and character of Pedgift Senior stood, for all general
purposes, revealed before you.

The lawyer's conveyance to Thorpe Ambrose was his own smart gig, drawn
by his famous fast-trotting mare. It was his habit to drive himself; and
it was one among the trifling external peculiarities in which he and his
son differed a little, to affect something of the sporting character in
his dress. The drab trousers of Pedgift the elder fitted close to his
legs; his boots, in dry weather and wet alike, were equally thick in
the sole; his coat pockets overlapped his hips, and his favorite summer
cravat was of light spotted muslin, tied in the neatest and smallest of
bows. He used tobacco like his son, but in a different form. While the
younger man smoked, the elder took snuff copiously; and it was noticed
among his intimates that he always held his "pinch" in a state of
suspense between his box and his nose when he was going to clinch a good
bargain or to say a good thing. The art of diplomacy enters largely into
the practice of all successful men in the lower branch of the law. Mr.
Pedgift's form of diplomatic practice had been the same throughout his
life, on every occasion when he found his arts of persuasion required
a