Put him on a false scent, and he will go after her hot-foot, and not find her.

And in a week he will be wiser.' 'It is dangerous,' Mr.Thomasson faltered, his eyes wandering uneasily.
'So am I,' the viscountess answered in a passion.

'And mind you, Thomasson,' she continued fiercely, 'you have got to side with me now! Cross me, and you shall have neither the living nor my good word; and without my word you may whistle for your sucking lord! But do my bidding, help me to checkmate this baggage, and I'll see you have both.
Why, man, rather than let him marry her, I'd pay you to marry her! I'd rather pay down a couple of thousand pounds, and the living too.

D'ye hear me?
But it won't come to that if you do my bidding.' Still Mr.Thomasson hesitated, shrinking from the task proposed, not because he must lie to execute it, but because he must lie to Dunborough, and would suffer for it, were he found out.

On the other hand, the bribe was large; the red gabled house, set in its little park, and as good as a squire's, the hundred-acre glebe, the fat tithes and Easter dues--to say nothing of the promised pupil and freedom from his money troubles--tempted him sorely.