interview. All your own laziness--exert yourself and find the girl."

"But I can't find the girl, and you know it. And I tell you what, Mr.
Losely, Colonel Morley, who is a very shrewd man, does not believe in the
girl's existence."

"Does not he! I begin to doubt it myself. But, at all events, you can't
doubt of mine, and I am grateful for yours; and since you have given me
the trouble of coming here to no purpose, I may as well take the next
week's pay in advance--four sovereigns if you please, Dolly Poole."




CHAPTER XII.

ANOTHER HALT--CHANGE OF HORSES--AND A TURN ON THE ROAD.

Colonel Morley, on learning that Jasper declined a personal conference
with himself, and that the proposal of an interview with Jasper's alleged
daughter was equally scouted or put aside, became still more confirmed in
his belief that Jasper had not yet been blest with a daughter
sufficiently artful to produce. And pleased to think that the sharper
was thus unprovided with a means of annoyance, which, skilfully managed,
might have been seriously harassing; and convinced that when Jasper found
no farther notice taken of him, he himself 'would be compelled to
petition for the terms he now rejected, the Colonel dryly informed Poole
"that his interference was at an end; that if Mr. Losely, either through
himself, or through Mr. Poole, or any one else, presumed to address Mr.
Darrell direct, the offer previously made would be peremptorily and