ounds, and I mean to carry it on. I
am in a manner bound to do so as the representative of the attorney
of the late Sir Joseph Mason;--and by heavens, Mr. Cooke, I'll do my
duty."

"I dare say you're right," said Mr. Crabwitz, mixing a quarter of a
glass more brandy and water.

"I know I'm right, sir," said Dockwrath. "And when a man knows he's
right, he has a deal of inward satisfaction in the feeling." After
that Mr. Crabwitz was aware that he could be of no use at Hamworth,
but he stayed out his week in order to avoid suspicion.

On the following day Mr. Dockwrath did proceed to Bedford Row,
determined to carry out his original plan, and armed with that inward
satisfaction to which he had alluded. He dressed himself in his best,
and endeavoured as far as was in his power to look as though he were
equal to the Messrs. Round. Old Crook he had seen once, and him he
already despised. He had endeavoured to obtain a private interview
with Mrs. Bolster before she could be seen by Matthew Round; but in
this he had not succeeded. Mrs. Bolster was a prudent woman, and,
acting doubtless under advice, had written to him, saying that she
had been summoned to the office of Messrs. Round and Crook, and would
there declare all that she knew about the matter. At the same time
she returned to him a money order which he had sent to her.

Punctually at twelve he was in Bedford Row, and there he saw a
respectable-looking female sitting at the fire in the inner part of
the outer office. This was Bridget Bolster, but he would by no means
have recognised her. Bridget had risen in the world and was now head
chambermaid at a large hotel in the west of England. In that capacity
she had laid aside whatever diffidence may have afflicted her earlier
years, and was now able to speak out her mind before any judge or
jury in the land. Indeed she had never been much afflicted by such
diffidence, and had spoken out her evidence on that former occasion,
now twenty years since, very plainly. But as she now explained to the
head clerk, she had at that time been only a poor ignorant slip of a
girl, with no more than eight pounds a year wages.

Dockwrath bowed to the head clerk, and passed on to Mat Round's
private room. "Mr. Matthew is inside, I suppose," said he, and hardly
waiting for permission he knocked at the door, and then entered.
There he saw Mr. Matthew Round, sitting in his comfortable arm-chair,
and opposite to him sat Mr. Mason of Groby