duty, my Lord, to have the
inquiry made."

"Your manifest duty," said the Dean, unable to restrain his triumph.

Lord George pleaded for delay, and before he left the lawyer's chambers
almost quarrelled with his father-in-law; but before he did leave them
he had given the necessary instructions.

CHAPTER XXIX.

MR. HOUGHTON WANTS A GLASS OF SHERRY.

Lord George, when he got out of the lawyer's office with his
father-in-law, expressed himself as being very angry at what had been
done. While discussing the matter within, in the presence of Mr.
Battle, he had been unable to withstand the united energies of the Dean
and the lawyer, but, nevertheless, even while he had yielded, he had
felt that he was being driven.

"I don't think he was at all justified in making any inquiry," he said,
as soon as he found himself in the Square.

"My dear George," replied the Dean, "the quicker this can be done the
better."

"An agent should only act in accordance with his instructions."

"Without disputing that, my dear fellow, I cannot but say that I am
glad to have learned so much."

"And I am very sorry."

"We both mean the same thing, George."

"I don't think we do," said Lord George, who was determined to be
angry.

"You are sorry that it should be so,--and so am I." The triumph which
had sat in the Dean's eye when he heard the news in the lawyer's
chambers almost belied this latter assertion. "But I certainly am glad
to be on the track as soon as possible, if there is a track which it is
our duty to follow."

"I didn't like that man at all," said Lord George.

"I neither like him nor dislike him; but I believe him to be honest,
and I know him to be clever. He will find out the truth for us."

"And when it turns out that Brotherton was legally married to the
woman, what will the world think of me then?"

"The world will think that you have done your duty. There can be no
question about it, George. Whether it be agreeable or disagreeable, it
must be done. Could you have brought yourself to have thrown the burden
of doing this upon your own child, perhaps some five-and-twenty years
hence, when it may be done so much easier now by yourself."

"I have no child," said Lord George.

"But you will have." The Dean, as he said this, could not keep himself
from looking too closely into his son-in-law's face. He was most
anxious for the birth of that grandson who was to be made a Marquis by
his own energies.