Bender
and then on Lord Theign, whose back was practically presented, he were
covertly studying signs. "Well," he presently said, "in view of the very
great interest combined with the very great rarity, more than--ah more
than can be estimated off-hand."

It made Lord Theign turn round. "But a fine Moretto has a very great
rarity and a very great interest."

"Yes--but not on the whole the same amount of either."

"No, not on the whole the same amount of either!"--Mr. Bender
judiciously echoed it. "But how," he freely pursued, "are you going to
find out?"

"Have I your permission, Lord Theign," Hugh brightly asked, "to attempt
to find out?"

The question produced on his lordship's part a visible, a natural
anxiety. "What would it be your idea then to _do_ with my property?"

"Nothing at all here--it could all be done, I think, at Verona. What
besets, what quite haunts me," Hugh explained, "is the vivid image of a
Mantovano--one of the glories of the short list--in a private collection
in that place. The conviction grows in me that the two portraits must
be of the same original. In fact I'll bet my head," the young man quite
ardently wound up, "that the wonderful subject of the Verona picture, a
very great person clearly, is none other than the very great person of
yours."

Lord Theign had listened with interest. "Mayn't he be that and yet from
another hand?"

"It isn't another hand"--oh Hugh was quite positive. "It's the hand of
the very same painter."

"How can you prove it's the same?"

"Only by the most intimate internal evidence, I admit--and evidence that
of course has to be estimated."

"Then who," Lord Theign asked, "is to estimate it?"

"Well,"--Hugh was all ready--"will you let Pap-pendick, one of the first
authorities in Europe, a good friend of mine, in fact more or less my
master, and who is generally to be found at Brussels? I happen to know
he knows your picture--he once spoke to me of it; and he'll go and look
again at the Verona one, he'll go and judge our issue, if I apply to
him, in the light of certain new tips that I shall be able to give him."

Lord Theign appeared to wonder. "If you 'apply' to him?"

"Like a shot, I believe, if I ask it of him--as a service."

"A service to _you?_ He'll be very obliging," his lordship smiled.

"Well, I've obliged _him!_" Hugh readily retorted.

"The obligation will be to we"--Lord Theign spoke more formally.

"Well, the satisfaction," said Hug