d. "Be off with you, and send that wire to Mary!"

I wanted to get rid of him. He wasn't exactly an inspiriting companion
just now; besides, I thought it possible that Southbourne might come to
see me again; and I had determined to tackle him about that portrait,
and try to exact the same pledge from him that I had from Jim. He might,
of course, have shown it to a dozen people, as he had to Jim; and on the
other hand he might not.

He came right enough, and I opened on him at once. He looked at me in
his lazy way, through half-closed lids,--I don't think I've ever seen
that man open his eyes full,--and smiled.

"So you do know the lady, after all," he remarked.

"I'm not talking of the original of the portrait, but of Miss
Pendennis," I retorted calmly. "I've seen Cayley, and he's quite ready
to acknowledge that he was misled by the likeness; but so may other
people be if you've been showing it around."

"Well, no; as it happens, I haven't done that. Only you and he have seen
it, besides myself. I showed it him because I knew you and he were
intimate, and I wanted to see if he would recognize her, as you did,--or
thought you did,--when I showed it you, though you wouldn't own up to
it. I'm really curious to know who the original is."

"So am I, to a certain extent; but anyhow, she's not Miss Pendennis!" I
said decisively; though whether he believed me or not I can't say. "And
I won't have her name even mentioned in connection with that portrait!"

"And therefore with,--but no matter," he said slowly. "I wish, for your
own sake, and not merely to satisfy my curiosity, that you would be
frank with me, or, if not with me, at least with Sir George. However,
I'll do what you ask. I'll make no further attempts, at present, to
discover the original of that portrait."

That was not precisely what I had asked him, but I let it pass. I knew
by his way of saying it that he shared my conviction--and Jim's--that it
was Anne's portrait right enough; but I had gained my point, and that
was the main thing.

The hearing at the police court next day was more of an ordeal than I
had anticipated, chiefly because of my physical condition. I had seemed
astonishingly fit when I started,--in a cab, accompanied by a couple of
policemen,--considering the extent of my injuries, and the sixty hours'
journey I had just come through; and I was anxious to get the thing
over. But when I got into the crowded court, where I saw numbers of
fami