“I must request you to consult some one else.  Consider me, if you please, as having withdrawn from all further connection with your affairs.”

Geoffrey looked at him in stolid surprise.

“Do you mean to say you’re going to leave me in the lurch?” he asked.

“I mean to say that I will take no fresh step in any business of yours,” answered Mr. Moy, firmly.  “As to the future, I have ceased to be your legal adviser.  As to the past, I shall carefully complete the formal duties toward you which remain to be done.  Mrs. Inchbare and Bishopriggs are coming here by appointment, at six this evening, to receive the money due to them before they go back.  I shall return to Scotland myself by the night mail.  The persons referred to, in the matter of the promise of marriage, by Sir Patrick, are all in Scotland.  I will take their evidence as to the handwriting, and as to the question of residence in the North—­and I will send it to you in written form.  That done, I shall have done all.  I decline to advise you in any future step which you propose to take.”

After reflecting for a moment, Geoffrey put a last question.

“You said Bishopriggs and the woman would be here at six this evening.”

“Yes.”

“Where are they to be found before that?”

Mr. Moy wrote a few words on a slip of paper, and handed it to Geoffrey.  “At their lodgings,” he said.  “There is the address.”

Geoffrey took the address, and left the room.  Lawyer and client parted without a word on either side.

Returning to the cab, Geoffrey found the lad steadily waiting at his post.

“Has any thing happened?”

“The lady hasn’t moved, Sir, since you left her.”

“Is Perry at the public house?”

“Not at this time, Sir.”

“I want a lawyer.  Do you know who Perry’s lawyer is?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“And where he is to be found?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Get up on the box, and tell the man where to drive to.”

The cab went on again along the Euston Road, and stopped at a house in a side-street, with a professional brass plate on the door.  The lad got down, and came to the window.

“Here it is, Sir.”

“Knock at the door, and see if he is at home.”

He proved to be at home.  Geoffrey entered the house, leaving his emissary once more on the watch.  The lad noticed that the lady moved this time.  She shivered as if she felt cold—­opened her eyes for a moment wearily, and looked out through the window—­sighed, and sank back again in the corner of the cab.

After an absence of more than half an hour Geoffrey came out again.  His interview with Perry’s lawyer appeared to have relieved his mind of something that had oppressed it.  He once more ordered the driver to go to Fulham—­opened the door to get into the cab—­then, as it seemed, suddenly recollected himself—­and, calling the lad down from the box, ordered him to get inside, and took his place by the driver.