"You are right; and the greater the need of an advocate. A man needs a strong, or at least an unexceptionable advocate, when he is at odds with himself. Now, I am almost sure Walter will not hear you. Will you place your cause—his, I mean, and his cousin's—in my hands?"
"Gladly," said Tincroft, "if—"
"If—But let me explain myself more clearly. My brother and Walter Wilson will be in very soon now," said Mary Burgess, looking at the timepiece in the room, and speaking hurriedly. "If they find you here, your name will greatly excite them both, I am sure; and I doubt whether Walter would hear a word from your lips. Go now, and leave me to do your errand. I will tell them all that you have said—"
"Don't forget to say that it was all my fault, Miss Burgess."
"No, I will not forget that; and I will try and smooth the way for a meeting between you and Walter to-morrow. I believe, and am sure, this is the best thing to be done. And you shall have a note from me in the morning. Where are you staying?"
John named the inn.
"Do you agree to this, Mr. Tincroft?"
John did agree to it. What else could he do? And then he took his departure.
"If I had but had a sister—and such a sister!" quoth John, sorrowfully, as he took his way to his inn.
A meeting did take place between John Tincroft and Walter Wilson on the morrow; but the reader shall be spared the particulars of this interview. It is enough to say that John had, metaphorically speaking, put his hand into the lion's mouth.