rom putting Morley on the track of Anne
Denham. Had Morley seen that letter----?

"Paris," murmured Giles, "I'll go there."

CHAPTER IX

A STRANGE DISCOVERY

The offices of Asher, Son, and Asher were situated in a dark, narrow
street in the City, which led down to the river. In former days the
place might have been respectable, and then the original Asher had set
up his official tent in the neighborhood; but civilization had moved
westward, and Terry Street was looked on askance by fashionable
solicitors. Nevertheless the firm of Asher continued to dwell in the
dingy office, where their progenitors had slaved for close on a hundred
years. It was quite good enough, thought the present head of the firm,
for such well-known lawyers.

The firm did a good old-fashioned business, eminently respectable and
safe. None of the three partners was a sharper, as Morley asserted; but
as the firm had issued a judgment summons against the master of The
Elms, he could scarcely be expected to think well of them. Old Mr. Asher
rarely came to the office, preferring his country house and melon beds,
and the business was conducted by the son and the other Asher, who was a
cousin. Both these gentlemen were over forty, and in spite of a modern
education were decidedly old-fashioned. There was something in the
musty air of the Terry Street office that petrified them into old men
before their due time. The three clerks who sat in the outer rooms were
also elderly, and the sole youthful creature about the place was the
office boy, a red-haired imp who answered to the name of Alexander. His
surname was Benker, but was not thought sufficiently dignified for use
in so sedate a place of business.

With some difficulty Steel found this musty haunt of the legal Muse, and
sent up his name to the senior partner with a request for an interview.
Alexander, whistling between his teeth, led him into a frowzy apartment
lined with books and tin boxes, and furnished with a green baize-covered
table heaped with legal papers, three chairs, and a mahogany sofa of the
Early Victorian period. Mr. Asher, the son, might have belonged to the
same epoch, in spite of his age, so rusty and smug did he look. His face
was clean-shaven with the exception of side-whiskers; his hair was thin
on the top and sparse on the sides, and he was dressed in a suit of
solemn black, with a satin tie to match. In fact, he was the typical
lawyer of melodrama, and Steel was s