Pawle. "He would do that, of course. But continue."
"Well," said the barrister, "after seeing these papers, I had no doubt
whatever that the case as presented by Ashton was quite clear, and that
his ward Miss Avice Wickham is without doubt Countess of Ellingham (the
title, I understand, going in the female as well as the male line) and
rightful owner of the estates. And I told him that his best plan, on
reaching England, was to put the whole matter before the family
solicitors. However, he said that before doing that, there were two
things he wanted to do. One was to find out for himself how things
were--if the young earl was a satisfactory landlord and so on, and
likely to be a credit to the family; the other was that he wanted to
consult the man who shared with him the bare knowledge that the man who
had been known in Melbourne as Wickham was really the missing Lord
Marketstoke. And he added that he had already telegraphed to this man to
meet him in Paris."
"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Pawle with a look in Viner's direction. "Now we are
indeed coming to something! He was to meet him in Paris! Viner, I'll wager
the world against a China orange that that's the man whom Armitstead saw
in company with Ashton in the Rue Royale, and--no doubt--the man of
Lonsdale Passage! Mr.
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