ly, Walter,
if there is any danger, and I shall know how to meet it."

"The only danger," I replied, "is that Sir Percival Glyde may have been
recalled to London by the news of Laura's escape. You are aware that
he had me watched before I left England, and that he probably knows me
by sight, although I don't know him?"

She laid her hand on my shoulder and looked at me in anxious silence.
I saw she understood the serious risk that threatened us.

"It is not likely," I said, "that I shall be seen in London again so
soon, either by Sir Percival himself or by the persons in his employ.
But it is barely possible that an accident may happen. In that case,
you will not be alarmed if I fail to return to-night, and you will
satisfy any inquiry of Laura's with the best excuse that you can make
for me? If I find the least reason to suspect that I am watched, I will
take good care that no spy follows me back to this house. Don't doubt
my return, Marian, however it may be delayed--and fear nothing."

"Nothing!" she answered firmly. "You shall not regret, Walter, that
you have only a woman to help you." She paused, and detained me for a
moment longer. "Take care!" she said, pressing my hand
anxiously--"take care!"

I left her, and set forth to pave the way for discovery--the dark and
doubtful way, which began at the lawyer's door.

IV

No circumstance of the slightest importance happened on my way to the
offices of Messrs. Gilmore & Kyrle, in Chancery Lane.

While my card was being taken in to Mr. Kyrle, a consideration occurred
to me which I deeply regretted not having thought of before. The
information derived from Marian's diary made it a matter of certainty
that Count Fosco had opened her first letter from Blackwater Park to
Mr. Kyrle, and had, by means of his wife, intercepted the second. He
was therefore well aware of the address of the office, and he would
naturally infer that if Marian wanted advice and assistance, after
Laura's escape from the Asylum, she would apply once more to the
experience of Mr. Kyrle. In this case the office in Chancery Lane was
the very first place which he and Sir Percival would cause to be
watched, and if the same persons were chosen for the purpose who had
been employed to follow me, before my departure from England, the fact
of my return would in all probability be ascertained on that very day.
I had thought, generally, of the chances of my being recognised in the
streets,