 asks me, I will marry him.«
    As those words were spoken Mutimer issued from the Manor gates, uncertain
whether to go his usual way down to the works or to pay a visit to Mrs. Waltham.
The latter purpose prevailed.
    The evening before, Mr. Willis Rodman had called at the Manor shortly after
dinner. He found Mutimer smoking, with coffee at his side, and was speedily
making himself comfortable in the same way. Then he drew a newspaper from his
pocket. »Have you seen the Belwick Chronicle of to-day?« he inquired.
    »Why the deuce should I read such a paper?« exclaimed Richard, with
good-humoured surprise. He was in excellent spirits to-night, the excitement of
the day having swept his mind clear of anxieties.
    »There's something in it, though, that you ought to see.«
    He pointed out the paragraph relating to Eldon.
    »Keene's writing, eh?« said Mutimer thoughtfully.
    »Yes, he gave me the paper.«
    Richard rekindled his cigar with deliberation, and stood for a few moments
with one foot on the fender.
    »Who is the woman?« he then asked.
    »I don't know her name. Of course it's the same story continued.«
    »And concluded.«
    »Well, I don't know about that,« said the other, smiling and shaking his
head.
    »This may or may not be true, I suppose,« was Richard's next remark.
    »Oh, I suppose the man hears all that kind of thing. I don't see any reason
to doubt it.«
    »May I keep the paper?«
    »Oh, yes. Keene told me, by-the-by, that he gave a copy to young Waltham.«
    Mr. Rodman spoke whilst rolling the cigar in his mouth. Mutimer allowed the
subject to lapse.
    There was no impossibility, no improbability even, in the statement made by
the newspaper correspondent, yet as Richard thought it over in the night, ho
could not but regard it as singular that Mr. Keene should be the man to make
public such a piece of information so very opportunely. He was far from having
admitted the man to his confidence, but between Keene and Rodman, as he was
aware, an intimacy had sprung up. It might be that one or the other had thought
it worth while to serve him; why should Keene be particular to put a copy of the
paper into Alfred Waltham's hands?
