The attorney, somehow, didn't seem to take kindly to this proposition. We
know he had imagined for himself some little flirtation on this behalf,
and cherished a secret _tendre_ for the same reversion. Perhaps he had
other plans, too. At all events it flashed the same suspicion of Lake
upon his mind again; and he said--

'I don't know, Sir, that the Reverend Mr. Wylder would entertain anything
in the nature of a sale of his reversion. I rather think the contrary. I
don't think his friends would advise it.'

'And why not? It was never more than a contingency; and now they say Mark
Wylder is married, and has children; they tell me he was seen at Ancona?'
said Lake tranquilly.

'_They_ tell you! who are _they?_' said the attorney, and his dove's eyes
were gone again, and the rat's eyes unequivocally looking out of the
small pink lids.

'They--they,' repeated Captain Lake. 'Why, of course, Sir, I use the word
in its usual sense--that is, there was a rumour when I was last in town,
and I really forget who told me. Some one, two, or three, perhaps.'

'Do you think it's true, Sir?' persisted Mr. Larkin.

'No, Sir, I don't,' said Captain Lake, fixing his eyes for a moment with
a frank stare on the attorney's face; 'but it is quite possible it _may_
be true.'

'If it _is_, you know, Sir,' said Jos. Larkin, 'the reversion would be a
bad purchase at a halfpenny. I don't believe it either, Sir,' resumed the