, now? It may be, for anything I know."

Then there came a long conversation, during which Mr. Juniper told some
details of his former life, and expressed himself very freely upon
certain points. It appeared that in the event of Mr. Scarborough having
died, as was expected, in the course of the early summer, and of Captain
Scarborough succeeding to the property in the accustomed manner, Mr.
Juniper would have been one of those who would have come forward with a
small claim upon the estate. He had lent, he said, a certain sum of
money to help the captain in his embarrassment, and expected to get it
back again. Now, latterly inquiries had been made very disagreeable in
their nature to Mr. Juniper; but Mr. Juniper, seeing how the the land
lay,--to use his own phrase,--consented only to accept so much as he had
advanced. "It don't make much difference to me," he had said. "Let me
have the three hundred and fifty pounds which the captain got in hard
money." Then the inquiries were made by Mr. Barry,--that very Mr. Barry
to whom subsequent inquiries were committed,--and Mr. Barry could not
satisfy himself as to the three hundred and fifty pounds which the
captain was said to have got in hard money. There had been words spoken
which seemed to Mr. Juniper to make it very inexpedient,--and we may say
very unfair,--that these farther inquiries into his character as a
husband should be intrusted to the same person. He regarded Mr. Barry as
an enemy to the human race, from whom, in the general confusion of
things, no plunder was to be extracted. Mr Barry had asked for the check
by which the three hundred and fifty pounds had been paid to Captain
Scarborough in hard cash. There had been no check, Mr. Juniper had said.
Such a small sum as that had been paid in notes at Newmarket. He said
that he could not, or, rather, that he would not, produce any evidence
as to the money. Mr. Barry had suggested that even so small a sum as
three hundred and fifty pounds could not have come and could not have
gone without leaving some trace. Mr. Juniper very indignantly had
referred to an acknowledgment on a bill-stamp for six hundred pounds
which he had filled in, and which the captain had undoubtedly signed.
"It's not worth the paper it's written on," Mr. Barry had said.

"We'll see about that," said Mr. Juniper. "As soon as the breath is out
of the old squire's body we'll see whether his son is to repudiate his
debts in that way. Ain't that the c