oak. And that old cowskin bag is not Sir George's. It is
odd. Ah! What is this?'

This was a paper, written and folded brief-wise, and indorsed:
'Statement of the Claimant's case for the worshipful consideration of
the Eight Honourable the Earl of Chatham and others the trustees of the
Estcombe Hall Estate. Without Prejudice.'

'So!' said the tutor. 'This may be intelligible.' And having assured
himself by a furtive glance through the window that the owners of the
room were not returning, he settled himself to peruse it. When he again
looked up, which was at a point about one-third of the way through the
document, his face wore a look of rapt, incredulous, fatuous
astonishment.

CHAPTER XIV

A GOOD MAN'S DILEMMA

Ten minutes later Mr. Thomasson slid back the bolt, and opening the
door, glanced furtively up and down the passage. Seeing no one, he came
out, closed the door behind him, and humming an air from the 'Buona
Figlinola,' which was then the fashion, returned slowly, and with
apparent deliberation, to the east wing. There he hastened to hide
himself in a small closet of a chamber, which he had that morning
secured on the second floor, and having bolted the door behind him, he
plumped down on the scanty bed, and stared at the wall, he was the prey
of a vast amazement.

'Jupiter!' he muttered at last, 'what a--a Pactolus I have missed! Three
months ago, two months ago, she would have gone on her knees to marry
me! And with all that money--Lord! I would have died Bishop of Oxford.
It is monstrous! Positively, I am fit to kill myself when I think
of it!'

He paused awhile to roll the morsel on the palate of his imagination,
and found that the pathos of it almost moved him to tears. But before
long he fell from the clouds to more practical matters. The secret was
his, but what was he going to do with it? Where make his market of it?
One by one he considered all the persons concerned. To begin with, there
was her ladyship. But the knowledge did not greatly affect the
viscountess, and he did not trust her. He dismissed the thought of
applying to her. It was the same with Dunborough; money or no money was
all one to him, he would take the girl if he could get her. He was
dismissed as equally hopeless. Soane came next; but Sir George either
knew the secret, or must know it soon; and though his was a case the
tutor pondered long, he discerned no profit he could claim from him.
Moreover, he had not much stomach