Whereas, Anthony Hamblin, deceased, formerly merchant, Great St. Simon Apostle, City of London, and Clapham Common, is believed to have contracted marriage some twenty to twenty-two or three years ago, with a person unknown; the above reward is offered to any one who will give such information as will lead to the discovery of the person and the place and date of marriage; and any persons who are cognizant of the marriage, who are connected with the wife of Anthony Hamblin, or who lost any female relation by flight, elopement, abduction, or disappearance about that time, are requested to communicate full particulars to the undersigned.""

Here followed the name and address of the solicitors.

There," said Alderney, with great satisfaction, "that will fetch the house-I mean, wake up the church."

"Very clearly put," said Mr. Billiter. "It is a pity that you were not made a lawyer, Mr. Codd."

"And now," said Gilbert, "for our own individual work. If Mr. Billiter will allow me, I will receive all the answers to the advertisements and report progress whenever any discovery takes place."

"And I," said Alderney, “will begin at once a private search in all the London parish registers. When I have gone through those, I will tackle the suburban churches. After that-but that is as far as we shall get."

"All this, Alderney," said Augustus, “will require money. You must not give us your time for nothing—at least, you must let us pay your expenses."

Poor Alderney blushed. He really had no employment for his time at the moment, for no one, up to the present, had shown any desire to join in the promotion of the Great Glass Spoon Company. And there were five weeks to quarter-day, and, to meet all expenses for those fiveand-thirty days, there was no more than the sum of five-and-thirty shillings, with a silver watch, a

"Thank you, Mr. Billiter. But-quid Roma faciam? Yet, if ripe scholarship and an intimate acquaintance with Latin literature could be of use in that profession-but I fear it is too late."

"There was a Mrs. Duncombe," said Gilbert, "who took charge of Alison for six or eight years. Should we not get hold of her?"

"Good," cried the intelligent Alderney, grasping more paper; "the very thing. Mrs. Duncombe by all means. Another advertisement. Two hundred-no, hang it !-five pounds reward will do for her. Mrs. Duncombe will be easy enough to find. There is no mystery about her, at any rate. Five Pounds Reward.-Wanted, the present address of Mrs. Duncombe, who for eight years had charge of a little girl at Brighton -initials, A. H.' And now I look upon our case as complete quite complete."

a theological essay, and two rings. These articles of jewelry spent the latter part of every quarter-day in charge of an obliging person who received them in trust, so to speak. Sometimes they remained "in" for a good six months, during which interval Alderney only knew the time by looking in bakers' shops, or the stations of the Underground Railway; by the pangs of hunger, and by the diurnal phenomena of nature.

Had it not been such an unfavorable time for him, he would rather have done the work for nothing. But poor men can not do generous and self-sacrificing things. He could not refuse the proffered money. And when Augustus, at parting, pressed into his hand a piece of paper which, as a rapid glance showed Alderney, was worth exactly fifty pounds, he was affected almost to tears.

"We will advertise, then," said Augustus. "Is there no other way of working? Can we not use some private inquiry-office?

They all had the old-fashioned respect for detectives, thinking they could solve any mystery. But Alderney shook his head. His faith was not so great.

"They can do nothing more than other men," he said. "Gilbert Yorke and I will be your best detectives. They get up the facts of a case just as we have done, and then advertise. That is just exactly what we are doing. And then they sit down and wait for replies-any one can do that."

omnes!"

CHAPTER XVIII.

HOW THE COURT WAS HARD TO PERSUade.

THE tendency of humanity, in this its fallen state, to believe everything that is evil of each other has been often illustrated by the ingenious tribe of poets and novelists. The Hamblin cousinhood may, in all future ages, be cited as another and very remarkable case in point. The thing had only to be asserted in order to be immediately believed; and yet it was in direct contradiction to everything the world had previously

held and acknowledged. Stephen said it was so. Stephen had always been the black sheep; Anthony had always been the respected chief of the House; yet Anthony's character was swept away by one single assertion of Stephen's. Enjoyment of the kind which is caused by surprise was also felt in the situation. Here was a striking example of the uncertainty of fortune: here was a turning of the wheel: here was a sudden sprawling in the mud of those who had been perched in apparent security on the highest point. No such reverse of fortune had ever befallen the Hamblin family, except, perhaps, in the case of that member of it who being on a voyage of adventure in the Indian Ocean, had his ship scuttled, and was himself made to walk a most uncomfortable and suicidal plank laid down for him by pirates of Sumatra. It was something the cousins felt, but did not express the feeling in words, something for the annals of the family, in the interests of morality and philosophy, to show such a beautiful example of the instability of human greatness as that of Alison Hamblin. The case of Croesus himself, although he saved himself at the last moment by an artful conundrum, could not have furnished his cousins, nephews, nieces, and marriage-connections with a more fertile topic of daily talk than the situation of Alison, the once fortunate, the beautiful Alison, provided for the family circle.

The female cousins pretended not to believe the story, out of deference to the partners, who were stout in their repudiation of Stephen's claim. But they did believe it at heart, and they whispered to each other words of doubt, pity, and suspicion, which served as an encouragement in belief. And the more they opened their eyes, raised their eyebrows, made round O's of their mouths, shook their heads, wagged their curls, lifted their shoulders, spread out their hands, and whispered words, the more they came to regard the story as not only probable, but certainly true.

:

No one liked Stephen. It was a fashion in the family to regard him as their least enviable possession. For his sake, and by means of his example, all Spaniards were supposed by the Hamblins to be profligate; how else to account for his extraordinary divergence from the recognized standards? All other Hamblins had done well there were Hamblins in the church, Hamblins in the army and navy, Hamblins at the bar, Hamblins in medicine-it was a part of the family tradition that a Hamblin should turn out well. And here was one who had never done any good at all. No Hamblin could contemplate without emotion the picture of Stephen the prodigal, Stephen the spendthrift, Stephen who was actually not satisfied with one fatted calf, but went

on working his unrepentant way through a dozen of those toothsome creatures.

It was, however, instructive to mark the difference which the new position of things produced. One may not love the Heir Presumptive, but one must pray for the King. It became a subject of serious, even prayerful, consideration with the cousins whether they ought not to call upon Stephen, so long neglected. One or two did actually leave cards at his chambers in Pall Mall. Stephen found them and threw them behind the fire. He was completely indifferent to the action of his relations. They had long since passed out of his thoughts: they did not enter into any part or relation of his life. If he thought of them at all, it was as forming part of the family which had treated him with neglect, and whom in return he would humble if he could.

He lost no time, however, after the final interviews and explanations with the partners, in putting his case into the hands of a firm of solicitors, who were known to be able and active men.

Yes. The case, as you present it, has weak points, Mr. Hamblin."

'You mean that my brother may have married. Rest assured that he never did. Let them search every register in England. I know that he never married. I am as certain as that I am standing here."

"But the young lady-she must have had a mother."

"Account for her mother as you will. My brother never married.”

Nothing short of the clearest documentary proof could shake Stephen's belief on this point. So far, he was perfectly and entirely sincere.

"There is another point. The Court, when we ask for letters of administration, may refuse to consider your brother's death as proved. Let us, however, make out the affidavit."

They went before the nearest commissioner, when Stephen took the necessary oath, and filled up the form:

Park, and that the personal estate and effects of the said deceased, which he anyway died possessed of, or entitled to, and for or in respect of which Letters of Administration are to be granted, exclusive of what the said deceased may have been possessed of or entitled to as a Trustee for any other person or persons, and not beneficially including the leasehold estate or estates for years of the said deceased, whether absolute or determinable on a life or lives, and without deducting anything on account of the debts due and owing from the said deceased, are under the value of three hundred thousand pounds to the best of my knowledge, information, and belief."

took off his heavy coat, and gave it to the man to keep for him: and he went away in the direction of a man who let chairs and adjusted skates for hire. Half an hour after his conversation with this officer the ice gave way, and two hundred people were suddenly submerged. A great many were drowned, and a great many bodies were subsequently recovered, but Mr. Anthony Hamblin's body, as already stated, was not found. In the evening the man carried the coat to his private residence, but he had not come home. There was no ground for any other supposition than that of death. He was a man universally respected and loved, a man of great wealth, a

“This application," said the lawyer, "must be lodged on Thursday. Fortunately, we are in time, and on Tuesday week we shall make our motion in court. You will give us as many particulars as possible, Mr. Hamblin. We must make our case a strong one at the outset.”

It was then Tuesday. There was, therefore, a fortnight to wait. Stephen, tolerably ignorant of the English law, thought he had only to ask for the letters of administration, and then to step at once into possession. At the worst, he fancied the Court might possibly grant a short delay of two or three months, while the other side looked about for proofs of the marriage. He waited impatiently for the fortnight to pass.

The day came at last. He found himself in the court.

Counsel for the complainant, in opening the case, said that, as had been stated in the affidavit, the deceased, Anthony Hamblin, had met with his death at the late deplorable accident on the 3d of January last, when, by the breaking of the ice, fifty persons had been suddenly drowned. The case presented the peculiarity that the body was never, and had not up to the present moment, been recovered. The Court might, therefore, be of opinion that the death was not proved. But the family, in the hope that he had not been drowned, had taken every possible step, offering very large rewards, and advertising in the most likely manner to attract the attention of people. Mr. Hamblin was a man of strongly-marked individuality, easily recognizable; it was impossible that he should be still living unknown and unrecognized. He left his home on the morning of the 3d of January: he told his servants that he should be home to dinner as usual: he was seen on the banks of the Serpentine half an hour or so before the occurrence of the accident: he was carrying his skates with him: he spoke to an officer of the Royal Humane Society, of which institution he was a liberal supporter: he announced his intention of going on the ice: he

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and regular habits, no longer young; a man of happy disposition, with no enemies, no anxieties, no mental troubles; a man who enjoyed life, a man possessed of strong physique, free from ailments or sickness of any kind.

Stephen Hamblin, his client, the only brother of the deceased, on hearing the sad news, at once took up the position of guardian to his brother's child. With regard to this child, there had always been a mystery about her. Anthony Hamblin, until ten years before, was believed by all to be a bachelor. He suddenly, however, at that time, appeared at home with a little girl aged nine years, whom he introduced simply as his daughter. He explained that her mother had been dead for many years, and offered no other explanation on the subject. Nor was any other asked: and, if his cousins had misgivings, these were easily appeased by consideration of the blameless life always led by the deceased.

On his death, however, the discovery that there was no will led to an attempt on the part of Stephen Hamblin to clear up the mystery connected with Miss Hamblin's birth. This investigation, commenced at first in the interests of the young lady, and after consultation with her, led Mr. Stephen Hamblin to surprising results. He found from the diaries and journals of the deceased, which, coupled with his own recollections of his brother's life, accounted fully for almost every hour of the past thirty years, that there could have been no marriage at all. In that case, Stephen Hamblin was sole heir, and Miss Hamblin had no legal claim to any portion of the estate.

. When these facts were fully established in his own mind, and not before, Stephen Hamblin sought his late brother's partners, and communicated them in a friendly spirit. He was not received, however, with the spirit that he expected. However, whether the petition was to be opposed or not, his client, in asking for letters of administration, desired it to be clearly understood that his intention, after acquiring the

property to which he was entitled, was to recognize his brother's child, and to provide for her with liberality.

The counsel went on to describe the property in general terms. The real property consisted of a large house and grounds, known as Hooghly House, standing on Clapham Common, and a house standing in a small park in Sussex. There was also a considerable estate in house property, partly in the City of London, where the Hamblins had been merchants for two hundreds years, and partly in the southern suburbs. Mr. Anthony Hamblin also, as chief partner in the firm, had a very large stake in the business. The personal property amounted to about two hundred and fifty thousand pounds in various stocks, securities, and investments. In addition, there was a valuable library, a collection of pictures, with furniture, objects of art, bric-a-brac, and so forth, the results of several generations of wealth. The whole would probably be sworn under three hundred thousand pounds.

The counsel for the petitioner then summed up his case. The proofs, which he held sufficient, to the mind of any unprejudiced person, that there never had been any marriage, were found in the very careful and minute diaries kept by Anthony Hamblin, in which every detail of expense, occupation, employment, and engagement, were scrupulously entered. These not only contained no mention of any marriage, but left no room for any marriage. Although his death had been announced in every paper, and, by reason of the accident which caused it, had obtained the widest publicity, no one had as yet stepped forward to claim relationship with the young lady on her mother's side. The great family Bible, in which were entries of the births and deaths of six generations of Hamblins, which formed, in fact, a complete genealogical table of the family, contained no entry of the marriage of Anthony or the birth of his daughter Alison. This omission was very extraordinary. There were a few witnesses to call. The first was the man Harris, whose evidence was simple and straightforward. He believed Mr. Hamblin was drowned with the rest. He could not see how any one could think otherwise. The body had never been found. It might have been among the rest, but he did not think that likely. There were two or three bodies unidentified, but their clothes had been kept.

Then the footman, Charles, deposed that his master had told him in the morning, before he went out, that he should be at home as usual.

Augustus Hamblin testified to the regular habits and freedom from care of his late cousin. He, too, expressed his conviction that Anthony Hamblin had been drowned.

The Court did not want to hear any more evidence on the subject. The Court would pass on to consider the nature of the claim set up by Mr. Stephen Hamblin.

Then the counsel for the other side was able to begin.

He said that up to a certain point he was prepared to acknowledge all the statements made by his learned brother. There was no will to be found; most likely none had been executed. There was no mention anywhere of a marriage. There was not any entry of his own marriage or the birth of his daughter in the family Bible. All this was quite true. As regarded the disinterested action of Mr. Stephen Hamblin, in seeking to prove himself the heir to so large a property, he was only desirous to state that Mr. Stephen Hamblin had proved his liberal intentions by offering this young lady, brought up to regard herself as the heiress of a very large fortune, a hundred pounds a year. But as regards the silence, he would submit that the question was altogether begged by his learned brother. There was one point quite undisputed by all; Miss Hamblin was the undoubted daughter of Anthony Hamblin. Not only did she possess

What

certain strongly marked peculiarities common to all the Hamblins, but she was most curiously and remarkably like her grandmother, Mr. Hamblin's mother, who had been a Spanish lady. Very well, then. Here was a daughter, acknowledged as such by all; here was an intentional and marked omission of all mention of the child's mother in diaries and family records. were they to infer? Two things were possible. The one view which his learned brother had adopted, and one which, he would submit to the Court, was the more probable because more honorable. It was this: the late Mr. Anthony Hamblin had been from boyhood of singular purity of life. Few men could look back upon a course so blameless, so free from reproach, as his. It was a life open to the eyes of all. There was nothing to conceal, nothing to be ashamed of. Above all, there could be no skeleton in the cupboard. His friends believed, one and all, implicitly in the purity and nobility of the life which had been so suddenly and fearfully taken from their midst. They believed that Anthony Hamblin was married. They were confident that, if investigation were made, proofs would be found. They put forward the daughter, Alison Hamblin, as the heiress, and they asked that time should be allowed to enable them to make the research.

The Judge said that this was a case in which he was not called upon to grant time for the purpose asked, viz., to prove the marriage. It did appear remarkable, and in some men it would