"I have both," said Varney. "In the first place, I have a letter from
Grabman!"

Lucretia's eyes sparkled, and she snatched eagerly at the letter her son-
in-law drew forth.

LIVERPOOL, October, 1831.

JASON,--I think I am on the road to success. Having first possessed
myself of the fact, commemorated in the parish register, of the birth and
baptism of Alfred Braddell's son,--for we must proceed regularly in these
matters,--I next set my wits to work to trace that son's exodus from the
paternal mansion. I have hunted up an old woman-servant, Jane Prior, who
lived with the Braddells. She now thrives as a laundress; she is a rank
Puritan, and starches for the godly. She was at first very wary and
reserved in her communications; but by siding with her prejudices and
humours, and by the intercession of the Rev. Mr. Graves (of her own
persuasion), I have got her to open her lips. It seems that these
Braddells lived very unhappily; the husband, a pious dissenter, had
married a lady who turned out of a very different practice and belief.
Jane Prior pitied her master, and detested her mistress. Some
circumstances in the conduct of Mrs. Braddell made the husband, who was
then in his last illness, resolve, from a point of conscience, to save
his child from what he deemed the contamination of her precepts and
example. Mrs. Braddell was absent from Liverpool on a visit, which was
thought very unfeeling by the husband's friends; during this time
Braddell was visited constantly by a gentleman (Mr. Ardworth), who
differed from him greatly in some things, and seemed one of the carnal,
but with whom agreement in politics (for they were both great politicians
and republicans) seems to have established a link. One evening, when Mr.