"
So Mr. Madgin was left alone with what he called his "considering cap."
As soon as the door was closed behind her ladyship, he tilted back his
chair, stuck his feet on the table, buried his hands deep in his pockets
and shut his eyes, and so remained for full five-and-twenty minutes. He
was busy consulting his notes when Lady Chillington re-entered the room.
Mr. Madgin began at once.
"I must confess," he said, "that the case which your ladyship has
submitted to me seems, from what I can see of it at present, to be
surrounded with difficulties. Still, I am far from counselling your
ladyship to despair entirely. The few points which, at the first glance,
present themselves as requiring solution are these:--Who was the M.
Platzoff who is said to have stolen the diamond? and what position in
life did he really occupy? Is he alive or dead? If alive, where is he
now living? If he did really steal the diamond, are not the chances as a
hundred to one that he disposed of it long ago? But even granting that
we were in a position to answer all these questions; suppose, even, that
this M. Platzoff were living in Eastbury at the present moment, and that
fact were known to us, how much nearer should we be to the recovery of
the diamond than we are now? Your ladyship must please to bear in mind
that as the case is now we have not an inch of legal ground to stand
upon. We have no evidence that would be worth a rush in a court of law
that M.
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