“It is to Miss Devereux that my brother is engaged,” Kitty answered. “You may imagine how sad she is. Yet she has been, and still is, so brave about it.”
“Not braver than you are, I’ll be bound,” said Burrell gallantly. “And now I will wish you good-afternoon.”
He did so, and refusing her offer of a carriage to take him, was soon striding across the park on his way back to the railway station. As he walked along he thought of what he had done that day, and of the strange good fortune that had so far attended his efforts.
“It is only the merest guess,” he said to himself, “and yet it’s the old, old story. It is when they think themselves most secure, and that detection is impossible, that they are in the greatest danger. At that point some minute circumstance is sufficient to give them away, and it’s all over. This looks as if it will prove another example of the one rule.”
It was nearly five o’clock when he reached London. Arriving there he called a hansom and bade the man drive him with all speed to Mr. Codey’s office. As it happened he was only just in time to catch the lawyer, who was on the point of leaving.
“Halloa, Burrell,” cried the genial Mr. Codey on seeing him, “you seem excited. What’s the matter now?”
“I didn’t know that I had anything to be excited about,” Burrell replied with a smile at the lawyer’s attempt to draw him out. “I only thought I would drop in upon you, sir, to let you know that I am leaving for the Continent first thing to-morrow morning. I may be away a week, possibly a fortnight. I’m not able to put a definite time upon it, for it will all depend upon circumstances.”
“Then I suppose, as usual, you are beginning to find yourself on the right track,” the lawyer remarked drily.
“And, just as usual, sir, I reply that that’s as may be,” said the other. “I don’t deny that I’ve got hold of a piece of information that may eventually put me on the proper line—but I’ve got to sift it first—before I can act upon it. That’s why I’m going abroad.”
“Don’t be any longer than you can help about it, then,” returned the lawyer. “You know when the trial comes off?”