I took it for granted that such a secret business would be more likely to have taken place in the precincts of the Fleet than anywhere else; and having no particular clue, I set to work, in the first place, to examine all available documents relating to such marriages." "It must have been slow work." "It _was_ slow work," answered Mr.Sheldon with a suppressed groan, that was evoked by the memory of a bygone martyrdom.

"I needn't enter into all the details of the business,--the people I had to apply to for permission to see this set of papers, and the signing and counter-signing I had to go through before I could see that set of papers, and the extent of circumlocution and idiocy I had to encounter in a general way before I could complete my investigation.

The result was nil; and after working like a galley-slave I found myself no better off than before I began my search.

Your extracts from Matthew's letters put me on a new track.

I concluded therefrom that there had been a marriage, and that the said marriage had been a deliberate act on the part of the young man.