“Does that young man expect you to leave him money? and does he look upon me as a possible rival?” Gilbert asked one night, provoked by the shopman’s conduct.

“Very likely,” Mr. Nowell answered, with a malicious grin.

“One gets good service from a man who expects his reward in the future.  Luke Tulliver serves me very well indeed, and of course I am not responsible for his delusions.”

“Do you know, Mr. Nowell, that is a man I should scarcely care to trust.  To my mind there is a warning of danger in his countenance.”

“My dear sir, I have never trusted any one in my life,” answered the silversmith promptly.  “I don’t for a moment suppose that Luke Tulliver would be honest if I gave him an opportunity to cheat me.  As to the badness of his countenance, that is so much the better.  I like to deal with an obvious rogue.  The really dangerous subject is your honest fool, who goes on straight enough till he has lulled one into a false security, and then turns thief all at once at the instigation of some clever tempter.”

“That young man lives in the house with you, I suppose?”

“Yes; my household consists of Luke Tulliver, and an old woman who does the cooking and other work.  There are a couple of garrets at the top of the house where the two sleep; my own bedroom is over this; and the room over the shop is full of pictures and other unsaleable stuff, which I have seldom occasion to show anybody.  My business is not what it once was, Mr. Fenton.  I have made some rather lucky hits in the way of picture-dealing in the course of my business career, but I haven’t done a big line lately.”

Gilbert was inclined to believe that Jacob Nowell was a much richer man than he cared to confess, and that the fortune which Marian Nowell might inherit in the future was a considerable one.  The old man had all the attributes of a miser.  The house in which he lived had the aspect of a place in which money has been made and hoarded day by day through long dull years.

* * * * *

It was not until the end of October that John Saltram made his appearance at his old friend’s lodgings.  He had just come up from the country, and was looking his best—­brighter and younger than Gilbert had seen him look for a long time.

“My dear Jack, I began to think I should never see you again.  What have you been doing all this time, and where have you been?”

“I have been hard at work, as usual, for the reviews, down Oxford way, at a little place on the river.  And how has the world been going with you, Gilbert?  I saw your advertisement offering a reward for evidence of Miss Nowell’s marriage.  Was there any result?”

“Yes; I know all about the marriage now, but I don’t know who or what the man is,” Gilbert answered; and then went on to give his friend a detailed account of his experience at Wygrove, and his visit to Sir David Forster.