He was stunned, stupefied, rendered helpless.
"I think," he proceeded, "I observed a girl named Nancy--I forget what else, Nancy something--that Miss Gourlay seemed to like a good deal.
Send her here.

But before you do so, may I beg to know why her father, her natural guardian and protector, was kept so long in ignorance of her extraordinary disappearance?
Pray, Mr.Gibson, satisfy me on that head ?" "I think, sir," replied Gibson, most un-gallantly shifting the danger of the explanation from his own shoulders to the pretty ones of Nancy Forbes--"I think, sir, Nancy Forbes, the girl you speak of, may know more about the last matter than I do." "What do you mean by the last matter ?" "Why, sir, the reason why we did not tell your honor of it sooner--" Sir Thomas waved his hand.

"Go," he added, "send her here." "D--n the old scoundrel," thought Gibson to himself; "but that's a fine piece of acting.

Why, if he hadn't been aware of it all along he would have thrown me clean out of the window, even as the messenger of such tidings.

However, he is not so deep as he thinks himself.