Madras, was quietly heralded without the slightest effort or ostentation
on her part.




CHAPTER XVIII.


The firm of Deeds, Chancery and Deeds, of Gray's Inn Lane, the
Solicitors employed by Horace Barton, on behalf of Miss Effingham, and
who had caused to be inserted in the _Times_ newspaper the advertisement
alluded to in a previous chapter, had not long to wait for the
information sought after. For on the following morning Mr. Septimus
Jones, Mr. Crowquill and the firm clerk, presented themselves at the
office in Gray's Inn Lane. The rough draft was produced, and the will of
the late Sir Jasper Coleman, brought to London by Arthur Carlton, and
now in the hands of the Gray's Inn lawyers, compared with it, and after
careful scrutiny it was declared to be the identical will drawn by the
Hammersmith lawyer, and witnessed by his two clerks several years ago;
this was duly sworn to, and certain other documentary evidence taken
down, and the three gentlemen returned to their homes in Hammersmith,
each twenty guineas richer than when he had left it in the morning.

Now, although there was no one to contest the will, yet there were
certain legal technicalities and forms to be gone through before Edith
could take formal possession of Vellenaux, besides these same lawyers
had been empowered to draw up the marriage contract, settlements, etc.,
between her and Arthur, the doing of which would take a considerable
time, much longer perhaps than the ardent lover might think necessary.