Nothing remained for her that day but the dreaded return of Mr. Belcher.  She was now more than ever at a loss to know how she should manage him.  She had resumed, during her interview with him, her old arts of fascination, and seen how easily she could make him the most troublesome of slaves.  She had again permitted him to kiss her hand.  She had asked a favor of him and he had granted it.  She had committed a breach of trust; and though she justified herself in it, she felt afraid and half ashamed to meet the man whom she had so thoroughly befooled.  She was disgusted with the new intimacy with him which her own hand had invited, and heartily wished that the long game of duplicity were concluded.

The General found more to engage his attention than he had anticipated, and after a few hours’ absence from the fascinations of his idol, he began to feel uneasy about his book.  It was the first time it had ever left his hands.  He grew nervous about it at last, and was haunted by a vague sense of danger.  As soon, therefore, as it became apparent to him that a second call upon Mrs. Dillingham that day would be impracticable, he sent Phipps to her with a note apprising her of the fact, and asking her to deliver to him the little account-book he had left with her.

It was with a profound sense of relief that she handed it to the messenger, and realized that, during that day and evening at least, she should be free, and so able to gather back her old composure and self-assurance.  Mr. Belcher’s note she placed with her copy of the book, as her authority for passing it into other hands than those of its owner.

While these little things, which were destined to have large consequences, were in progress in the city, an incident occurred in the country, of no less importance in the grand out come of events relating to Mr. Belcher and his victim.

It will be remembered that after Mr. Belcher had been apprised by his agent at Sevenoaks that Mr. Benedict was undoubtedly alive, and that he had lived, ever since his disappearance, at Number Nine, he wrote to Sam Yates, putting profitable business into his hands, and that he also directed his agent to attach him, by all possible means, to the proprietor’s interests.  His motive, of course, was to shut the lawyer’s mouth concerning the autograph letters he had furnished.  He knew that Yates would remember the hints of forgery which he had breathed into his ear during their first interview in the city, and would not be slow to conclude that those autographs were procured for some foul purpose.  He had been careful, from the first, not to break up the friendly relations that existed between them, and now that he saw that the lawyer had played him false, he was more anxious than ever to conciliate him.

Yates attended faithfully to the business intrusted to him, and, on reporting results to Mr. Belcher’s agent, according to his client’s directions, was surprised to find him in a very friendly and confidential mood, and ready with a proposition for further service.  There were tangled affairs in which he needed the lawyer’s assistance, and, as he did not wish to have the papers pertaining to them leave his possession, he invited Yates to his house, where they could work together during the brief evenings, when he would be free from the cares of the mill.