Uxmoor put in his word. "Poikilus! That is a name one sees in the papers.""Of course you do. He is one of the humbugs of the day. Pretends to find things out; advertises mysterious disappearances; offers a magnificent reward--with perfect safety, because he has invented the lost girl's features and dress, and her disappearance into the bargain; and I hold with the schoolmen that she who does not exist cannot disappear.
Poikilus, a puffing detective. S. I., Secret Inquiry. _I_ spell Enquiry with an E--but Poikilus is a man of the day. What the deuce can Ned Severne want of him? I suppose I ought not to object. I have established a female detective at Hillstoke. So Ned sets one up at Islip. I shall make my own secret arrangements. If Poikilus settles here, he will be drawn through the horse-pond by small-minded rustics once a week."While he was going on like this, Zoe felt uncomfortable, and almost irritated by his volubility, and it was a relief to her when Severne returned. He had confided a most delicate case to the detective, given him written instructions, and stipulated for his leaving the house without a word to any one, and, indeed, seen him off--all in seven minutes. Yet he returned to our party cool as a cucumber, to throw dust in everybody's eyes.
"I must apologize for this intrusion," he said to Vizard; "but my lawyer wanted to consult me about the lease of one of my farms, and, finding himself in the neighborhood, he called instead of writing.""Your lawyer, eh?" said Vizard, slyly. "What is your lawyer's name?""Jackson," said Ned, without a moment's hesitation.
Fanny giggled in her own despite.
Instead of stopping here, Severne must go on; it was his unlucky day.
"Not quite a gentleman, you know, or I would have inflicted his society on you.""Not quite--eh?" said Harrington, so dryly that Fanny Dover burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.