But the deuce of it is, that my servant has misunderstood my directions, and gone on to Paris with the luggage.

However, we can set that all straight to-morrow." Nothing could be more courteously acquiescent than the manner of the landlady; for Captain Paget had offered her references, and the people to whom he referred were among the magnates of the land.

The Captain knew enough of human nature to know that if references are only sufficiently imposing, they are very unlikely to be verified.

The swindler who refers his dupe to the Duke of Sutherland and Baring Brothers has a very good chance of getting his respectability accepted without inquiry, on the mere strength of those sacred names.
* * * * * From this time until the day of her death Mary Anne Paget very seldom heard her husband make any statement which she did not know to be false.

He had joined the ranks of the vultures.