Do they ever place you in a difficulty ?" "Difficulty! God help you; there is not an individual among them, or throughout the whole parish, with whose persons, circumstances, and characters I am not acquainted; but even if it were not so, I could make them give me unconsciously the very information they want--returned to them, of course, in a new shape.

I make them state the facts, and I draw the inferences; nothing is easier; it is a trick that every impostor is master of.

How do you proceed with Miss Goodwin ?" "That matter is hopeless by fair means--she's in love with that d----d brother of mine." "No chance of the property, then ?" "Not as affairs stand at present; we must, however, maintain our intimacy; if so, I won't despair yet." "But what do you intend to do?
If she marries your brother the property goes to him--and you may go whistle." "I don't give it up, though--I bear a brain still, I think; but the truth is, I have not completed my plan of operations.

What I am to do, I know not yet exactly.

If I could break off the match between her and my brother, she might probably, through the influence of her parents and other causes, he persuaded into a reluctant marriage with Harry Woodward; time, however, will tell, and I must only work my way through the difficulty as well as I can.