'My money or your own?'
'Your lordship's money. But, of course, you can call upon me to refund. I can only plead in mitigation that I supposed myself to have stood beside your deathbed, and to have seen your lordship actually expire. A gigantic imposition has been practised; though how, at present, I altogether fail to understand.'
'How much has he had?'
'I'm afraid as much as twenty thousand pounds.'
'What's he done with it?'
'I have reason to believe that the major part of it has been transferred to Mr. Howarth.'
'What, Douglas! Does he think I'm dead?'
'Mr. Howarth was the prime mover----' He stopped. 'I wish to say nothing--speaking, as I do, as one in the dark--which I may have to recall hereafter, so I will simply observe that it was Mr. Howarth who discovered you.'
'Discovered me?'
'Discovered, that is, the person who pretended to be you.'