and choose he must! — can inform me where to find the schedule, the documents, the evidences, in whatever shape they exist, of the vast amount of Uncle Jaffrey’s missing property. He has the secret. His boast was no idle word. It had a directness, an emphasis, a particularity, that showed a backbone of solid meaning within the mystery of his expression.”

“But what could have been Clifford’s object,” asked Hepzibah, “in concealing it so long?”

“It was one of the bad impulses of our fallen nature,” replied the Judge, turning up his eyes.

“He looked upon me as his enemy. He considered me as the cause of his overwhelming disgrace, his imminent peril of death, his irretrievable ruin.