All this is, so far, common enough. The villa and the lady are

such familiar objects in London life, that I ought to apologise for

introducing them to notice. But what is not common and not familiar (in

my experience), is that all these fine things were not only ordered,

but paid for. The pictures, the statues, the flowers, the jewels,

the carriages, and the horses--inquiry proved, to my indescribable

astonishment, that not a sixpence of debt was owing on any of them. As

to the villa, it had been bought, out and out, and settled on the lady.

I might have tried to find the right reading of this riddle, and tried

in vain--but for Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite's death, which caused an inquiry

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to be made into the state of his affairs.

The inquiry elicited these facts:-That Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite was entrusted with the care of a sum of

twenty thousand pounds--as one of two Trustees for a young gentleman,

who was still a minor in the year eighteen hundred and forty-eight. That

the Trust was to lapse, and that the young gentleman was to receive the

twenty thousand pounds on the day when he came of age, in the month of

February, eighteen hundred and fifty. That, pending the arrival of this

period, an income of six hundred pounds was to be paid to him by his two

Trustees, half-yearly--at Christmas and Midsummer Day. That this income

was regularly paid by the active Trustee, Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite. That

the twenty thousand pounds (from which the income was supposed to

be derived) had every farthing of it been sold out of the Funds, at

different periods, ending with the end of the year eighteen hundred and

forty-seven. That the power of attorney, authorising the bankers to sell

out the stock, and the various written orders telling them what amounts

to sell out, were formally signed by both the Trustees. That the

signature of the second Trustee (a retired army officer, living in

the country) was a signature forged, in every case, by the active

Trustee--otherwise Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite.

In these facts lies the explanation of Mr. Godfrey's honourable conduct,

in paying the debts incurred for the lady and the villa--and (as you

will presently see) of more besides.

We may now advance to the date of Miss Verinder's birthday (in the year

eighteen hundred and forty-eight)--the twenty-first of June.

On the day before, Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite arrived at his father's house,

and asked (as I know from Mr. Ablewhite, senior, himself) for a loan of

three hundred pounds. Mark the sum; and remember at the same time,

that the half-yearly payment to the young gentleman was due on

the twenty-fourth of the month. Also, that the whole of the young

gentleman's fortune had been spent by his Trustee, by the end of the

year 'forty-seven.




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