“Nobody but my sister,” pursued Charley, “would have found out such an extraordinary companion. She has done it in a ridiculous fancy of giving herself up to another. She told me so, that night when we went there.”

“Why should she give herself up to the dressmaker?” asked Bradley.

“Oh!” said the boy, colouring. “One of her romantic ideas! I tried to convince her so, but I didn’t succeed. However, what we have got to do, is, to succeed tonight, Mr. Headstone, and then all the rest follows.”

“You are still sanguine, Hexam.”

“Certainly I am, sir. Why, we have everything on our side.”

“Except your sister, perhaps,” thought Bradley. But he only gloomily thought it, and said nothing.