The ostler was sure he had not; the Boots could take his Bible oath to the same effect; the young woman in the kitchen could not call to mind anything respecting a packet, though she was able to give me a painfully circumstantial account of the events of the morning--where she went and what she did, down to the purchase of three-pennyworth of pearl-ash and a pound of Glenfield starch for the head chambermaid, on which she dwelt with a persistent fondness.
I now felt assured that there had been treachery here, as in the Goodge business; and I asked myself to whom could I impute that treachery?
My instinctive suspicion was of Horatio Paget.

And yet, was it not more probable that Theodore Judson, senr.

and Theodore Judson, junr.

were involved in this business, and were watching and counterchecking my actions with a view to frustrating the plans of my principal?
This was one question which I asked myself as I deliberated upon this mysterious business.

Had the Theodore Judsons some knowledge of a secret marriage on the part of Matthew Haygarth?
and did they suspect the existence of an heir in the descendant of the issue of that marriage?
These were further questions which I asked myself, and which I found it much more easy to ask than to answer.