CHAPTER VI.
The next day, the friend and legal adviser of Agnes Lockwood, Mr.Troy, called on her by appointment in the evening.
Mrs.Ferrari--still persisting in the conviction of her husband's death--had sufficiently recovered to be present at the consultation.
Assisted by Agnes, she told the lawyer the little that was known relating to Ferrari's disappearance, and then produced the correspondence connected with that event.

Mr.Troy read (first) the three letters addressed by Ferrari to his wife; (secondly) the letter written by Ferrari's courier-friend, describing his visit to the palace and his interview with Lady Montbarry; and (thirdly) the one line of anonymous writing which had accompanied the extraordinary gift of a thousand pounds to Ferrari's wife.
Well known, at a later period, as the lawyer who acted for Lady Lydiard, in the case of theft, generally described as the case of 'My Lady's Money,' Mr.Troy was not only a man of learning and experience in his profession--he was also a man who had seen something of society at home and abroad.

He possessed a keen eye for character, a quaint humour, and a kindly nature which had not been deteriorated even by a lawyer's professional experience of mankind.

With all these personal advantages, it is a question, nevertheless, whether he was the fittest adviser whom Agnes could have chosen under the circumstances.

Little Mrs.Ferrari, with many domestic merits, was an essentially commonplace woman.