"Well, never mind Peggy, now, Bill; I want to ask you what you have done
with Margaret Joplin, whom, sly seducer that you are, you carried off
from--"

"Why, man, Peggy be Joplin, and Joplin be Peggy! And it's for that piece
of noos that I got all them pretty new picters of his Majesty Bill,--my
namesake, God bliss 'im!"

"D--n," exclaimed Grabman, aghast; "the young chap's spoiling my game
again!" And seizing up his brief-bag, he darted out of the house, in the
hope to arrive at least at Clapham before his competitors.




CHAPTER XXI.

BECK'S DISCOVERY.

Under the cedar-trees at Laughton sat that accursed and abhorrent being
who sat there, young, impassioned, hopeful, as Lucretia Clavering,--under
the old cedar-trees, which, save that their vast branches cast an
imperceptibly broader shade over the mossy sward, the irrevocable winters
had left the same. Where, through the nether boughs the autumn sunbeams
came aslant, the windows, enriched by many a haughty scutcheon, shone
brightly against the western rays. From the flower-beds in the quaint
garden near at hand, the fresh yet tranquil air wafted faint perfumes
from the lingering heliotrope and fading rose. The peacock perched
dozily on the heavy balustrade; the blithe robin hopped busily along the