CHAPTER XIX. 



When Miss Badsworth and her niece paid a short visit to 

 London the matters which exercised their minds were diverse. 

 The elder lady felt positive that it was necessary for her to 

 be rid of many responsibilities which had grown up around 

 her ; the younger was exercised as to the manner in which 

 she should procure the outfit for the part which she intended 

 to play. 



A reference to her late uncle's personal accounts showed 

 that Messrs. Lappel & Stock, the Bond Street tailors, were 

 the persons who for years had supplied him with his hunting 

 kit. 



The bills of this firm contained many mysterious items, 

 aprons amongst others, and each article of clothing, whether 

 coats or leathers or what not, was minutely described as 

 possessing linings^ pockets, buttons and other accessories, 

 apparently enumerated in order to make the garment in 

 question tally with the price charged. 



The full-length portrait of Hugo Badsworth was a useful 

 object lesson, but it could answer no questions, and Lavvy, 

 as she studied it, always found herself going back to the 

 query, " What could have induced such a man to give such 

 needless trouble and saddle others with impossible tasks ? " 



Jack Morgan could have given her all the information she 

 needed, but of course she could not ask him. Her aunt, she 

 felt sure, would be as ignorant, or more so, than she was 

 herself. In this latter case she was wrong. 



The only thing to be done was to take Messrs. Lappel 

 & Stock by the horns, as it were, give her orders with as 

 much confidence as she could command, and if she found 

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