ogether, and
during breakfast two workmen called, and, at Coventry's request, were
ushered into the room. They came to say they knew Mr. Little well,
and felt sure that was his dead hand they had seen at the Town
Hall. Coventry cross-examined them severely, but they stuck to their
conviction; and this will hardly surprise the reader when I tell him the
workmen in question were Cole and another, suborned by Coventry himself
to go through this performance.

Mr. Carden received the testimony readily, for the best of all
reasons--he wanted to believe it.

But, when they were gone, he recurred to the difficulty of his position.
Director of the "Gosshawk," and father to a young lady who had a claim
of five thousand pounds on it, and that claim debatable, though, to his
own mind, no longer doubtful.

Now Mr. Coventry had a great advantage over Mr. Carden here: he had
studied this very situation profoundly for several hours, and at last
had seen how much might be done with it.

He began by artfully complimenting Mr. Carden on his delicacy, but said
Miss Carden must not be a loser by it. "Convince her, on other grounds,
that the man is dead; encourage her to reward my devotion with her hand,
and I will relieve you of everything disagreeable. Let us settle on Miss
Carden, for her separate use, the five thousand pounds, and anything
else derivable from Mr. Little's estate; but we must also settle my farm
of Hindhope: for it shall never be said she took as much from that man
as she did from me. Well, in due course I apply to the 'Gosshawk' for
my wife's money. I am not bound to tell your Company it is not mine
but hers; that is between you and me. But you really ought to write to
London at once and withdraw the charge of fraud; you owe that piece of
justice to Miss Carden, and to the memory of the deceased."

"That is true; and it will pave the way for the demand you propose to
make on Mrs. Coventry's behalf. Well, you really are a true friend, as
well as a true lover."

In short, he went back to Hillsborough resolved to marry his daughter
to Coventry as soon as possible. Still, following that gentleman's
instructions, he withheld from Grace that Little had made a will in her
favor. He knew her to be quite capable of refusing to touch a farthing
of it, or to act as executrix. But he told her the workmen had
identified the remains, and that other circumstances had also convinced
him he had been unjust to a deceased person, wh