ting at it--tell me,
and we shall see if I can advise you."

I considered. The housekeeper could not help us--Laura could not help
us--Marian could not help us. In all probability, the only persons in
existence who knew the date were Sir Percival and the Count.

"I can think of no means of ascertaining the date at present," I said,
"because I can think of no persons who are sure to know it, but Count
Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde."

Mr. Kyrle's calmly attentive face relaxed, for the first time, into a
smile.

"With your opinion of the conduct of those two gentlemen," he said,
"you don't expect help in that quarter, I presume? If they have
combined to gain large sums of money by a conspiracy, they are not
likely to confess it, at any rate."

"They may be forced to confess it, Mr. Kyrle."

"By whom?"

"By me."

We both rose. He looked me attentively in the face with more
appearance of interest than he had shown yet. I could see that I had
perplexed him a little.

"You are very determined," he said. "You have, no doubt, a personal
motive for proceeding, into which it is not my business to inquire. If
a case can be produced in the future, I can only say, my best
assistance is at your service. At the same time I must warn you, as
the money question always enters into the law question, that I see
little hope, even if you ultimately established the fact of Lady
Glyde's being alive, of recovering her fortune. The foreigner would
probably leave the country before proceedings were commenced, and Sir
Percival's embarrassments are numerous enough and pressing enough to
transfer almost any sum of money he may possess from himself to his
creditors. You are of course aware----"

I stopped him at that point.

"Let me beg that we may not discuss Lady Glyde's affairs," I said. "I
have never known anything about them in former times, and I know
nothing of them now--except that her fortune is lost. You are right in
assuming that I have personal motives for stirring in this matter. I
wish those motives to be always as disinterested as they are at the
present moment----"

He tried to interpose and explain. I was a little heated, I suppose,
by feeling that he had doubted me, and I went on bluntly, without
waiting to hear him.

"There shall be no money motive," I said, "no idea of personal
advantage in the service I mean to render to Lady Glyde. She has been
cast out as a stranger from the house in which she was b