“Not at all, I assure you. Did he mention that he knew me?”

“He did not. He only said of you that he expected to be paid by you.”

“Which looks,” remarked Eugene with much gravity, “like not knowing me. I hope it may not be my worthy friend Mr. Aaron, for, to tell you the truth, Mortimer, I doubt he may have a prepossession against me. I strongly suspect him of having had a hand in spiriting away Lizzie.”

“Everything,” returned Lightwood impatiently, “seems, by a fatality, to bring us round to Lizzie. ‘About town’ meant about Lizzie, just now, Eugene.”

“My solicitor, do you know,” observed Eugene, turning round to the furniture, “is a man of infinite discernment!”

“Did it not, Eugene?”