It was a relief to Ellinor, who had not
attained her end, but who had gone far towards betraying something of her
own individual interest in the question she had asked. Ralph had been
more struck even by her manner than her words. He was sure that
something lurked behind, and had an idea of his own that it was connected
with Dunster's disappearance. But he was glad that Mr. Ness's joining
them gave him leisure to consider a little.
The end of his reflections was, that the next day, Monday, he went into
the town, and artfully learnt all he could hear about Mr Dunster's
character and mode of going on; and with still more skill he extracted
the popular opinion as to the embarrassed nature of Mr. Wilkins's
affairs--embarrassment which was generally attributed to Dunster's
disappearance with a good large sum belonging to the firm in his
possession. But Mr. Corbet thought otherwise; he had accustomed himself
to seek out the baser motives for men's conduct, and to call the result
of these researches wisdom. He imagined that Dunster had been well paid
by Mr. Wilkins for his disappearance, which was an easy way of accounting
for the derangement of accounts and loss of money that arose, in fact,
from Mr. Wilkins's extravagance of habits and growing intemperance.
On the Monday afternoon he said to Ellinor, "Mr. Ness interrupted us
yesterday in a very interesting conversation.
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