it brought home to him!'

'I hope it will _find_ him at home when it is,' said Caffyn; 'these
things generally find the culprits "out" in more senses than one, to
use an old Joe Miller. He would look extremely well in the Old Bailey
dock. But this is Utopian, Uncle.'

'Well--we shall see. I turn off here, so good-bye. If you meet that
libelling scoundrel again, you remember what I've told you.'

'Yes, I will,' thought Caffyn as he walked back alone. 'I must know
more of my dear Ashburn; and if there happens to be a screw loose
anywhere in my dear Ashburn's past, I shall do my humble best to give
it a turn or two. It's a charming amusement to unmask the perfidious
villain, as I suppose I must call myself after to-day, but it was
hardly safe to do it if he has his reasons for wearing a domino
himself. If I could only think that excellent uncle of mine had not
found a mare's nest! And if I can only put that screw on!'

CHAPTER XXI.

A PARLEY WITH THE ENEMY.

Mr. Fladgate was one of those domestically inclined bachelors who are
never really at ease in rooms or chambers, and whose tastes lead them,
as soon as they possess the necessary means, to set up a substantial
and well-regulated household of their own. He had a large
old-fashioned house in the neighbourhood of Russell Square, where he
entertained rather frequently in a solid unpretentious fashion. At his
Sunday dinners especially, one or two of the minor celebrities of the
day were generally to be met, and it was to one of these gatherings
that Mark was invited, as one of the natural consequences of the
success of 'Illusion.' He found himself, on arriving, in company with
several faces familiar to him from photographs, and heard names
announced which were already common property. There were some there
who had been famous once and were already beginning to be forgotten,
others now obscure who were destined to be famous some day, and a few,
and these by no means the least gifted, who neither had been nor would
be famous at any time. There were two or three constellations of some
magnitude on this occasion, surrounded by a kind of 'milky way' of
minor stars, amongst which the bar, the studios, and the stage were
all more or less represented.

Mark, as a rising man who had yet to justify a first success, occupied
a position somewhere between the greater and lesser division, and Mr.
Fladgate took care to make him known to many of the leading men in
the roo