t, but he was really eager to put the seal of
relationship upon any secret with regard to himself that a man who might
inherit L20,000. a year--a dead shot, and a bold tongue--might think
fit to disclose. This made him more earnest than he otherwise might have
been in advice as to other people's affairs. He spoke to Beaufort as a
man of the world--to Blackwell as a lawyer.

"Pin the man down to his generosity," said Lilburne, "before he gets
the property. Possession makes a great change in a man's value of money.
After all, you can't enjoy the property when you're dead: he gives it
next to Arthur, who is not married; and if anything happen to Arthur,
poor fellow, why, in devolving on your daughter's husband and children,
it goes in the right line. Pin him down at once: get credit with the
world for the most noble and disinterested conduct, by letting your
counsel state that the instant you discovered the lost document you
wished to throw no obstacle in the way of proving the marriage, and that
the only thing to consider is, if the marriage be proved; if so, you
will be the first to rejoice, &c. &c. You know all that sort of humbug
as well as any man!"

Mr. Blackwell suggested the same advice, though in different
words--after taking the opinions of three eminent members of the bar;
those opinions, indeed, were not all alike--one was adverse to Mr.
Robert Beaufort's chance of success, one was doubtful of it, the
third maintained that he had nothing to fear from the action--except,
possibly, the ill-natured construction of the world. Mr. Robert Beaufort
disliked the idea of the world's ill-nature, almost as much as he
did that of losing his property. And when even this last and more
encouraging authority, learning privately from Mr. Blackwell that
Arthur's illness was of a nature to terminate fatally, observed, "that a
compromise with a claimant, who was at all events Mr. Beaufort's nephew,
by which Mr. Beaufort could secure the enjoyment of the estates to
himself for life, and to his son for life also, should not (whatever
his probabilities of legal success) be hastily rejected--unless he had
a peculiar affection for a very distant relation--who, failing Mr.
Beaufort's male issue and Philip's claim, would be heir-at-law, but
whose rights would cease if Arthur liked to cut off the entail."

Mr. Beaufort at once decided. He had a personal dislike to that distant
heir-at-law; he had a strong desire to retain the esteem of