copy, and the person who copied it may
yet be alive to attest it. Occupied with this thought, and weary of
waiting the result of our advertisement, I resolved to go into the
neighbourhood of Fernside; luckily, there was a gentleman's seat to
be sold in the village. I made the survey of this place my apparent
business. After going over the house, I appeared anxious to see how far
some alterations could be made--alterations to render it more like Lord
Lilburne's villa. This led me to request a sight of that villa--a crown
to the housekeeper got me admittance. The housekeeper had lived with
your father, and been retained by his lordship. I soon, therefore, knew
which were the rooms the late Mr. Beaufort had principally occupied;
shown into his study, where it was probable he would keep his papers, I
inquired if it were the same furniture (which seemed likely enough from
its age and fashion) as in your father's time: it was so; Lord Lilburne
had bought the house just as it stood, and, save a few additions in the
drawing-room, the general equipment of the villa remained unaltered.
You look impatient!--I'm coming to the point. My eye fell upon an
old-fashioned bureau--"

"But we searched every drawer in that bureau!"

"Any secret drawers?"

"Secret drawers! No! there were no secret drawers that I ever heard of!"

Mr. Barlow rubbed his hands and mused a moment.

"I was struck with that bureau; for any father had had one like it. It
is not English--it is of Dutch manufacture."

"Yes, I have heard that my father bought it at a sale, three or four
years after his marriage."

"I learned this from the housekeeper, who was flattered by my admiring
it. I could not find out from her at what sale it had been purchased,
but it was in the neighbourhood she was sure. I had now a date to go
upon; I learned, by careless inquiries, what sales near Fernside had
taken place in a certain year. A gentleman had died at that date whose
furniture was sold by auction. With great difficulty, I found that his
widow was still alive, living far up the country: I paid her a visit;
and, not to fatigue you with too long an account, I have only to say
that she not only assured me that she perfectly remembered the bureau,
but that it had secret drawers and wells, very curiously contrived;
nay, she showed me the very catalogue in which the said receptacles are
noticed in capitals, to arrest the eye of the bidder, and increase the
price of the bidding.