“Nothing!” she answered firmly. “You shall not regret, Walter, that you have only a woman to help you.” She paused, and detained me for a moment longer. “Take care!” she said, pressing my hand anxiously⁠—“take care!”

I left her, and set forth to pave the way for discovery⁠—the dark and doubtful way, which began at the lawyer’s door.

No circumstance of the slightest importance happened on my way to the offices of Messrs. Gilmore & Kyrle, in Chancery Lane.