table at a roar.

In private Captain Oliphant pursued the subject of Gustav and his
relations (apart from their mutual connexion with the break-down) with
the Maxfield tutor.

He received very little satisfaction from his inquiry. Tom was so full
of his main topic that the other events of that memorable evening in
town occupied but a secondary place in his memory.

He recollected Gustav as a good-natured foreigner whom Armstrong called
by his Christian name, and who talked French in return. He could not
remember where he lived, except that it was ten minutes' walk from
Christy's Minstrels; nor had he the slightest idea what the two men
talked about, except that Armstrong had promised to hold somebody's
hand, and that Gustav had tried to kiss him by way of recompense.

Captain Oliphant chose to take a very serious view of this disclosure.
It fitted in exactly with his theory that the tutor was an adventurer of
"shady antecedents," and, as such, an undesirable companion for the late
"dear one's" orphan-boy.

"I should not feel I was doing my duty," said he to Mr Pottinger that
afternoon, "if I were not to follow this up. We don't know whom we have
to deal with; and the fact of Mr Ingleton having confided in him
really, you know, weighs very little with me; old men of enfeebled
intellect, my dear Pottinger, are so easily hoodwinked."

"Quite so. Does it not occur to you, Captain, that a simple solution of
the difficulty would be for Mrs Ingleton to send her boy to college?"

"Mrs Ingleton," said the Captain, "is unfortunately incapable of
regarding this subject in any light but that of her son's likings. And
Roger Ingleton, minor, is infatuated."

"Humph!" said the lawyer, "I thought so. Then I agree with you, it will
be useful to institute a few inquiries."

"Leave that to me," said the captain. "By the way, what about that
piece of land you were speaking of?"

"Ah!" said the lawyer, making as near an approach to a blush as he could
muster, "the fact is, Hodder's lease falls in next week. He has had it
at a ridiculously low figure, and is not a profitable tenant."

"That is the old dotard who is always croaking about Maxfield in the
days before the Flood?"

"Well, almost as remote a period. He was here in the time of the late
squire's father. At any rate his lease falls in; and I happen to know a
person who is willing to give twenty per cent more for the land than he
pays. I can't tell you his nam