As he did so he caught sight of the figure of a tall gentleman
strolling idly towards the office door. For a moment he stared at him
blankly, as a man does when he is trying to catch the vague clue to a
new idea. Then, as the figure passed out of his view, he brought his
fist down heavily upon the sill.

"Edward Cossey, by George!" he said aloud. "There's the way out of it,
if only I can work him, and unless I have made a strange mistake, I
think I know the road."

A couple of minutes afterwards a tall, shapely young man, of about
twenty-four or five years of age, came strolling into the office where
Mr. Quest was sitting, to all appearance hard at work at his
correspondence. He was dark in complexion and decidedly distinguished-
looking in feature, with large dark eyes, dark moustachios, and a
pale, somewhat Spanish-looking skin. Young as the face was, it had, if
observed closely, a somewhat worn and worried air, such as one would
scarcely expect to see upon the countenance of a gentleman born to
such brilliant fortunes, and so well fitted by nature to do them
justice, as was Mr. Edward Cossey. For it is not every young man with
dark eyes and a good figure who is destined to be the future head of
one of the most wealthy private banks in England, and to inherit in
due course a sum of money in hard cash variously estimated at from
half a million to a million sterling. This, however, was the prospect
in life that opened out before Mr. Edward Cossey, who was now supposed
by his old and eminently business-like father to be in process of
acquiring a sound knowledge of the provincial affairs of the house by
attending to the working of their branch establishments in the Eastern
counties.