ANTHONY CASTLEMAINE ON HIS SEARCH.
The hour of dinner with all business men in Stilborough was half-past
one o'clock in the day. Perhaps Mr. Peter Castlemaine was the only man
who did not really dine then; but he took his luncheon; which came to
the same thing. It was the recognized daily interregnum in the public
doings of the town--this half hour between half-past one and two:
consequently shops, banks, offices, all were virtually though not
actually closed. The bank of Mr. Peter Castlemaine made no exception.
On all days, except Thursday, market day, the bank was left to the
care of one clerk during this half hour: the rest of the clerks and
Mr. Hill would be out at their dinner. As a rule, not a single
customer came in until two o'clock had struck.
It was the day after the ball. The bank had been busy all the morning,
and Mr. Peter Castlemaine had been away the best part of it. He came
back at half-past one, just as the clerks were filing out.
"Do you want me, sir?" asked Thomas Hill, standing back with his hat
in his hand; and it was the dreadfully worn, perplexed look on his
master's face that induced him to ask the question.
"Just for a few minutes," was the reply. "Come into my room."
Once there, the door was closed upon them, and they sat in grievous
tribulation. There was no dinner for poor Thomas Hill that day; there
was no lunch for his master: the hour's perplexities were all in all.
On the previous evening some stranger had arrived at Stilborough, had
put up at the chief inn there, the Turk's Head; and then, after
enquiring the private address of Mr. Peter Castlemaine's head clerk,
had betaken himself to the clerk's lodgings. Thomas Hill was seated at
tea when the gentleman was shown in. It proved to be a Mr. Fosbrook,
from London: and the moment the clerk heard the name, Fosbrook, and
realized the fact that the owner of it was in actual person before
him, he turned as cold as a stone. For of all the men who could bring
most danger on Mr. Peter Castlemaine, and whom the banker had most
cause to dread, it was this very one, Fosbrook. That he had come down
to seek explanations in person which might no longer be put off, the
clerk felt sure of: and the fact of his seeking out him instead of
his master, proved that he suspected something was more than wrong. He
had had a little passing, private acquaintance with Mr. Fosbrook in
the years gone by, and perhaps that induced the step.
Thomas Hill did what he could. He dared not afford explanation or
information himself, for he knew not what it would be safe to say,
what not. He induced Mr. Fosbrook to return to his inn, undertaking to
bring his master to wait on him there. To the banker's house he would
not take the stranger; for the gaiety of which it was that night the
scene was not altogether a pleasant thing to show to a creditor.
Leaving Mr. Fosbrook at the Turk's Head on his way, he came on to
apprise Mr. Peter Castlemaine.
Mr. Peter Castlemaine went at once to the inn. He had no resource but
to go: he did not dare do otherwise: and this it was that caused his
absence during the arrival of the guests. The interview was not a long
one; for the banker, pleading the fact of having friends at home,
postponed it until the morning.
It was with this gentleman that his morning had been spent; that he
had now, half-after one o'clock, just come home from. Come home with
the weary look in his face, and the more than weary pain at his heart.
"And what is the result, sir?" asked Thomas Hill as they sat down
together.
"The result is, that Fosbrook will wait a few days, Hill three or
four, he says. Perhaps that may be made five or six: I don't know.
After that--if he is not satisfied by tangible proofs that things are
right and not wrong, so far as he is concerned--there will be no
further waiting."
"And the storm must burst."
"The storm must burst," echoed Peter Castlemaine.
"Oh but, sir, my dear master, what can be done in those few poor
days?" cried Thomas Hill, in agitation. "Nothing. You must have more
time allowed you."
"I had much ado to get that much, Hill. I had to LIE for it," he
added, in a low tone.
"Do you see a chance yourself, sir?"
"Only one. There is a chance; but it is a very remote one. That last
venture of mine has turned up trumps: I had the news by the mail this
morning: and if I can realize the funds in time, the present danger
may be averted."
"And the future trouble also," spoke Thomas Hill, catching eagerly at
the straw of hope. "Why, sir, that will bring you in a mine of
wealth."
"Yes. The only real want now is time. Time! time! I have said it
before perhaps too sanguinely; I can say it in all truth now."
"And, sir--did you not show this to be the case to Mr. Fosbrook?"
"I did. But alas, I had to deny to him my other pressing
liabilities--and he questioned sharply. Nevertheless, I shall tide it
over, all of it, if I can only secure the time. That account of
Merrit's--we may as well go over it together now, Thomas. It will not
take long."
They drew their chairs to the table side by side. A thought was
running through Thomas Hill's mind, and he spoke it as he opened the
ledgers.
"With this good news in store, sir, making repayment
certain--for if time be given you, you will now have
plenty--don't you think Mr. Castlemaine would advance you funds?"
"I don't know," said the banker. "James seems to be growing cautious.
He has no notion of my real position--I shrink from telling him--and I
am sure he thinks that I am quite rich enough without borrowing money
from anybody for fresh speculations. And, in truth, I don't see how he
can have much money at command. This new trouble, that may be looming
upon him, will make him extra cautious."
"What trouble?" asked Thomas Hill.
"Some man, I hear, has made his appearance at Greylands, calling
himself Anthony Castlemaine, and saying that he is a son of my brother
Basil," replied the banker, confidentially.
"Never!" cried the old man. "But, sir, if he be, how should that bring
trouble on Mr. Castlemaine?"
"Because the stranger says he wants to claim Greylands' Rest."
"He must be out of his mind," said Thomas Hill. "Greylands' Rest is
Mr. Castlemaine's; safe enough too, I presume."
"But a man such as this may give trouble, don't you see."
"No, sir, I don't see it--with all deference to your opinion. Mr.
Castlemaine has only to show him it is his, and send him to the right
about----"
A knock at the room door interrupted the sentence. The clerk rose to
open it, and received a card and a message, which he carried to his
master. The banker looked rather startled as he read the name on it:
"Anthony Castlemaine."
Somewhere about an hour before this, young Anthony Castlemaine, after
a late breakfast a la fourchette, had turned out of the Dolphin Inn to
walk to Stilborough. Repulsed by his Uncle James on the previous day,
and not exactly seeing what his course should be, he had come to the
resolution of laying his case before his other uncle, the banker.
Making enquiries of John Bent as to the position of the banker's
residence, he left the inn. Halting for a few seconds to gaze across
beyond the beach, for he thought the sea the most beautiful object in
nature and believed he should never tire of looking at it, he went on
up the hill, past the church, and was fairly on his road to
Stilborough. It was a lonely road enough, never a dwelling to be seen
all the way, save a farm homestead or two lying away amid their
buildings; but Anthony Castlemaine walked slowly, taking in all the
points and features of his native land, that were so strange to his
foreign eye. He stood to read the milestones; he leaned on the fences;
he admired the tall fine trees, leafless though they were; he
critically surveyed the two or three carts and waggons that passed.
The sky was blue, the sun bright, he enjoyed the walk and did not
hurry himself: but nevertheless he at length reached Stilborough, and
found out the house of the banker. He rang at the private door.
The servant who opened it saw a young man dressed in a rather uncommon
kind of overcoat, faced with fur. The face was that of a stranger;
but the servant fancied it was a face he had seen before.
"Is my uncle Peter at home?"
"Sir!" returned the servant, staring at him. For the only nephew the
banker possessed, so far as he knew, was the son of the Master of
Greylands. "What name did you please to ask for, sir?"
"Mr. Peter Castlemaine. This is his residence I am told."
"Yes, sir, it is."
"Can I see him? Is he at home?"
"He is at home, in his private room, sir; I fancy he is busy. I'll ask
if you can see him. What name shall I say, sir?"
"You can take my card in. And please say to your master that if he is
busy, I can wait."
The man glanced at the card as he knocked at the door of the private
room, and read the name: "Anthony Castlemaine."
"It must be a nephew from over the sea," he shrewdly thought: "he
looks foreign. Perhaps a son of that lost Basil."
We have seen that Thomas Hill took in the card and the message to his
master. He came back, saying the gentleman was to wait; Mr. Peter
Castlemaine would see him in a quarter of an hour. So the servant,
beguiled by the family name, thought he should do right to conduct the
stranger upstairs to the presence of Miss Castlemaine, and said so,
while helping him to take off his overcoat.
"Shall I say any name, sir?" asked the man, as he laid his hand on the
handle of the drawing-room door.
"Mr. Anthony Castlemaine."
Mary Ursula was alone. She sat near the fire doing nothing, and very
happy in her idleness, for her thoughts were buried in the pleasures
of the past gay night; a smile was on her face. When the announcement
was made, she rose in great surprise to confront the visitor. The
servant shut the door, and Anthony came forward.
He did not commit a similar breach of good manners to the one of the
previous day; the results of that had shown him that fair stranger
cousins may not be indiscriminately saluted with kisses in England. He
bowed, and held out his hand with a frank smile. Mary Ursula did not
take it: she was utterly puzzled, and stood gazing at him. The
likeness in his face to her father's family struck her forcibly. It
must be premised that she did not yet know anything about Anthony, or
that any such person had made his appearance in England. Anthony
waited for her to speak.
"If I understood the name aright--Anthony Castlemaine--you must be, I
presume, some relative of my late grandfather's, sir?" she said at
length.
He introduced himself fully then; who he was, and all about it. Mary
Ursula met his hand cordially. She never doubted him or his identity
for a moment. She had the gift of reading countenances; and she took
to the pleasant, honest face at once, so like the Castlemaines in
features, but with a more open expression.
"I am sure you are my cousin," she said, in cordial welcome. "I
think I should have known you for a Castlemaine had I seen your face
in a crowd."
"I see, myself, how like I am to the Castlemaines, especially to my
father and grandfather: though unfortunately I have not inherited
their height and strength," he added, with a slight laugh. "My mother
was small and slight: I take after her."
"And my poor uncle Basil is dead!"
"Alas, yes! Only a few weeks ago. These black clothes that I wear are
in memorial of him."
"I never saw him," said Miss Castlemaine, gazing at the familiar--for
indeed it seemed familiar--face before her, and tracing out its
features. "But I have heard say my uncle Basil was just the image of
his father."
"And he was," said Anthony. "When I saw the picture of my grandfather
yesterday at Greylands' Rest, I thought it was my father's hanging
there."
It was a long while since Miss Castlemaine had met with anyone she
liked so well at a first interview as this young man; and the quarter
of an hour passed quickly. At its end the servant again appeared,
saying his master would see him in his private room. So he took leave
of Mary Ursula, and was conducted to it.
But, as it seemed, Mr. Peter Castlemaine did not wait to receive him:
for almost immediately he presented himself before his daughter.
"This person has been with you, I find, Mary Ursula! Very wrong of
Stephen to have brought him up here! I wonder what possessed him to do
it?"
"I am glad he did bring him, papa," was her impulsive answer. "You
have no idea what a sensible, pleasant young man he is. I could almost
wish he were more even than a cousin--a brother."
"Why, my dear, you must be dreaming!" cried the banker, after a pause
of astonishment. "Cousin!--brother! It does not do to take strange
people on trust in this way. The man may be, and I dare say is, an
adventurer," he continued, testily: "no more related to the
Castlemaines than I am related to the King of England."
She laughed. "You may take him upon trust, papa, without doubt or
fear. He is a Castlemaine all over, save in the height. The likeness
to grandpapa is wonderful; it is so even to you and to uncle James.
But he says he has all needful credential proofs with him."
The banker, who was then looking from the window, stood fingering the
bunch of seals that hung from his long and massive watch-chain, his
habit sometimes when in deep thought. Self-interest sways us all. The
young man was no doubt the individual he purported to be: but if he
were going to put in a vexatious claim to Greylands' Rest, and so upset
James, the banker might get no loan from him. He turned to his
daughter.
"You believe, then, my dear, that he is really what he makes himself
out to be--Basil's son?"
"Papa, I think there is no question of it. I feel sure there can be
none. Rely upon it, the young man is not one who would lay himself out
to deceive, or to countenance deception: he is evidently honest and
open as the day. I scarcely ever saw so true a face."
"Well, I am very sorry," returned the banker. "It may bring a great
deal of trouble upon James."
"In what way can it bring him trouble, papa?" questioned Mary Ursula,
in surprise.
"This young man--as I am informed--has come over to put in a claim to
Greylands' Rest."
"To Greylands' Rest!" she repeated. "But that is my uncle James's! How
can anyone else claim it?"
"People may put in a claim to it; there's no law against that; as I
fear this young man means to do," replied the banker, taking thought
and time over his answer. "He may cost James no end of bother and
expense."
"But, papa--I think indeed you must be misinformed. I feel sure this
young man is not one who would attempt to claim anything that is not
his own."
"But if he supposes it to be his own?"
"What, Greylands' Rest his? How can that be?"
"My dear child, as yet I know almost nothing. Nothing but a few words
that Mrs. Castlemaine said to me last night."
"But why should he take up such a notion, papa?" she asked, in
surprise.
"From his father, I suppose. I know Basil as much believed Greylands'
Rest would descend to him as he believed In his Bible. However, I must
go down and see this young man."
As soon as Peter Castlemaine entered his private room, and let his
eyes rest on the face of the young man who met him so frankly, he saw
the great likeness to the Castlemaines. That it was really his nephew,
Basil's son, he had entertained little doubt of from the first; none,
since the recent short interview with his daughter. With this
conviction on his mind, it never would have occurred to him to deny or
cast doubts on the young man's identity, and he accepted it at once.
But though he called him "Anthony," or "Anthony Castlemaine"--and now
and then by mistake "Basil"--he did not show any mark of gratification
or affection, but was distant and cold; and thought it very
inconvenient and ill-judged of Basil's son to be bringing trouble on
James. Taking his place in his handsome chair, turned sideways to the
closed desk, he faced the young man seated before him.
A few minutes were naturally spent in questions and answers, chiefly
as to Basil's career abroad. Young Anthony gave every information
freely--just as he had done to his uncle James on the previous day.
After that, at the first pause, he passed on to the subject of the
inheritance.
"Perhaps, Uncle Peter, you will not refuse to give me some information
about my grandfather's estate, Greylands' Rest," he began. "My father
always assured me it would be mine. He said it would come to him at
his father's death, and then to me afterwards----"
"He must have spoken without justifiable warranty," interrupted the
banker. "It did not necessarily lapse to Basil, or to anyone else.
Your grandfather could leave it to whom he would."
"Of course: we never understood otherwise. But my father always said
that it would never be left away from him."
"Then I say, that he spoke without sufficient warranty," repeated the
banker. "Am I to understand that you have come over to this country to
put in a claim to Greylands' Rest, on this sole justification?"
"My father, on his dying bed, charged me to come and claim it, Uncle
Peter. He had bequeathed it to me in his will. It was only quite at
the last that he learnt his father was dead, and he made a fresh will
at once, and gave me the charge to come over without delay. When I
presented myself to my uncle James yesterday, he seemed much to resent
the fact that I should put in any claim to the estate. He told me I
had no right to do so; he said it was his."
"Well?" said the banker; for the young man had paused.
"Uncle Peter, I am not unreasonable. I come home to find my uncle
James in possession of the estate, and quite ready, as I gather, to
oppose my claim to it; or, I should better say, to treat me and my
claim with contempt. Now I do not forget that my grandfather might
have left it to uncle James; that he had the power to do so----"
"Most undoubtedly he had," again interrupted the banker. "And I can
tell you that he never, to the very last, allowed anybody to interfere
with his wish and will."
"Well, I say I am not unreasonable, Uncle Peter. Though I have come
over to claim the estate, I should not attempt to lay claim to it in
the teeth of facts. I told my uncle James so. Once let me be convinced
that the estate was really and fairly bequeathed to him, and I would
not, for the world, wish to disturb him in its possession. I am not a
rogue."
"But he is in possession, Anthony; and it appears that you do wish to
disturb him," remonstrated Mr. Peter Castlemaine.
"I beg your pardon; I think you have not quite caught my meaning. What
I want is, to be assured that Greylands' Rest was left away from my
father: that he was passed over for my uncle James. If uncle James
came into it by will, or by legal deed, of any kind, let him just
show me the deed or the will, and that will suffice."
"You doubt his word then!"
Young Anthony hesitated, before replying; and then spoke out with
ingenuous candour.
"The fact is, Uncle Peter, I deem it right to assure myself by
proof, of how the matter is; for my father warned me that there might
be treachery----"
"Treachery!" came the quick, echoing interposition of the banker; his
dark eyes flashing fire.
"My father thought it possible," quietly continued the young man; "he
feared that, even though Greylands' Rest was legally mine, my claim to
it might be opposed. That is one reason why I press for proof; I
should press for it if there existed no other. But I find that doubts
already are circulating abroad as to how Mr. James Castlemaine came
into the estate, and whether it became lawfully his on my
grandfather's death."
"Doubts existing abroad! Doubts where?"
"Amid the neighbours, the people of Greyland's. I have heard one and
another talk of it."
"Oh, indeed!" was the cold rejoinder. "Pray where are you staying?"
"At the Dolphin Inn, Uncle Peter. When I descended at it, and saw the
flaming dolphin on the signboard, splashing up the water, I could not
help smiling; for my father had described it to me so accurately, that
it seemed like an old acquaintance."
Mr. Peter Castlemaine made no rejoinder, and there ensued a silence.
In truth, his own difficulties were so weighty that they had been
pressing on his mind throughout, an undercurrent of trouble, and for
the moment he was lost in them.
"Will you, Uncle Peter, give me some information of the true state
of the case?" resumed the young man. "I came here purposely, intending
to ask you. You see, I want to be placed at a certainty, one way or
the other. I again repeat that I am not unreasonable; I only ask to be
dealt with fairly and honourably. If Greylands' Rest is not mine, show
me that it is not; if it is mine, I ought to have it. Perhaps you will
tell me, Uncle Peter, how it was left."
The banker suddenly let drop his seals, with which he had been playing
during the last appeal, and turned his full attention to the speaker,
answering in a more frank tone than he had yet spoken.
"When your father, Basil, went away, he took his full portion of money
with him--a third of the money we should conjointly inherit. I
received my portion later; James received his. Nothing remained but
Greylands' Rest and the annuity--a large one--which your grandfather
enjoyed from his wife's family: which annuity had nothing to do with
us, for it would go back again at his death. Greylands' Rest could be
disposed of as he should please. Does it strike you as any strange
thing, Anthony, that he should prefer its passing to the son who was
always with him, rather than to the son who had abandoned him and his
home, and whom he did not even know to be alive?"
"Uncle Peter, I have said that I see reasons why my grandfather might
make his second son his heir, rather than his eldest. If he did so, I
am quite ready and willing to accept the fact, but I must first of all
be convinced that it is fact. It is true, is it not, that my
grandfather always intended to leave the estate to his eldest son
Basil?"
"That is true," assented the banker, readily. "Such no doubt was his
intention at one time. But Basil crossed him, and went, besides, out
of sight and out of mind, and James remained with him and was always a
dutiful son. It was much more natural that he should bequeath it to
James than to Basil."
"Well, will you give me the particulars of the bequest, Uncle Peter?
Was the estate devised by will, or by deed of gift?"
"I decline to give you more particulars than I have already given,"
was the prompt reply of the banker. "The affair is not mine; it is my
brother James's. You find him in secure possession of the estate; you
are told that it is his; and that ought to suffice. It is a very
presumptuous proceeding on the part of Basil's son, to come over in
this extraordinary manner, without warning of any kind, and attempt to
question the existing state of things. That is my opinion, Anthony."
"Is this your final resolve, Uncle Peter?--not to help me?"
"My final, irrevocable resolve. I have enough to do in attending to my
own affairs, without interfering with my brother's!"
Anthony Castlemaine took up his hat, and put forth his hand. "I am
very sorry, Uncle Peter. It might have saved so much trouble. Perhaps
I shall have to go to law."
The banker shook hands with him in a sufficiently friendly spirit: but
he did not ask him to remain, or to call again.
"One hint I will give you, Anthony," he said, as the young man turned
to the door; and he spoke apparently upon impulse. "Were you to expend
your best years and your best energies upon this search, you would be
no wiser than you are now. The Castlemaines do not brook interference;
neither are their affairs conducted in that loose manner that can
afford a possibility of their being inquired into; and so long as Mr.
Castlemaine refuses to allow you ocular proof, rely upon it you will
never get to have it. The Castlemaines know how to hold their own."
"I am a Castlemaine, too, uncle, and can hold my own with the best of
them. Nothing will turn me from my course in this matter, save the
proofs I have asked for."
"Good-morning, Anthony."
"Good-day, Uncle Peter."
Anthony put on his coat in the hall, and went forth into the street.
There he halted; looking this way and that way, as though uncertain of
his route.
"A few doors on the right hand, on the other side the
market-house, John Bent said," he repeated to himself. "Then I must
cross the street, and so onwards."
He crossed over, went on past the market-house, and looked attentively
at the doors on the other side it. On one of those doors was a brass
plate: "Mr. Knivett, Attorney-at-law." Anthony Castlemaine rang the
bell, asked if the lawyer was at home, and sent in one of his cards.
He was shown into a small back room. At a table strewn with papers and
pens, sat an elderly man with a bald head, who was evidently regarding
the card with the utmost astonishment. He turned his spectacles on
Anthony.
"Do I see Mr. Knivett, the avoué?" he asked, substituting for once a
French term for an English one, perhaps unconsciously.
"I am Mr. Knivett, sir, attorney-at-law."
In the frank, free way that seemed so especially to characterise him,
Anthony Castlemaine put out his hand as to a friend.
"You knew my father well, sir. Will you receive his son for old
memories' sake?"
"Your father?" asked Mr. Knivett, questioningly: but nevertheless
meeting the hand with his own, and glancing again at the card.
"Basil Castlemaine. He who went away so long ago from Greylands'
Rest."
"Bless my heart!" cried Mr. Knivett, snatching off his glasses in his
surprise. "Basil Castlemaine! I never thought to hear of him again.
Why, it must be--ay--since he left, it mast be hard upon
five-and-thirty years."
"About that, I suppose, sir."
"And--is he come back?"
Anthony had again to go over the old story. His father's doings abroad
and his father's death, and his father's charge to him to come home
and claim his paternal inheritance: he rehearsed it all. Mr. Knivett,
who was very considerably past sixty, and had put his spectacles on
again, never ceased gazing at the relator, as they sat nearly knee to
knee. Not for a moment did any doubt occur to him that the young man
was other than he represented himself to be: the face was the face of
a Castlemaine, and of a truthful gentleman.
"But I have come to you, not only to show myself to a friend of my
poor father's in his youth, but also as a client," proceeded Anthony,
after a short while. "I have need of a lawyer's advice, sir; which I
am prepared to pay for according to the charges of the English
country. Will you advise me?"
"To be sure," replied Mr. Knivett. "What advice is it that you want?"
"First of all, sir--In the days when my father was at home, you were
the solicitor to my grandfather, old Anthony Castlemaine. Did you
continue to be so until his death?"
"I did."
"Then you can, I hope, give me some particulars that I desire to know.
To whom was Greylands' Rest bequeathed--and in what manner was it
devised?"
Mr. Knivett shook his head. "I cannot give you any information upon
the point," he said. "I must refer you to Mr. Castlemaine."
"I have applied to Mr. Castlemaine, and to Mr. Peter Castlemaine also:
neither of them will tell me anything. They met me with a point blank
refusal to do so."
"Ah--I daresay. The Castlemaines never choose to be questioned."
"Why will not you afford me the information, Mr. Knivett?"
"For two reasons. Firstly, because the probability is that--pray
understand me, young sir; note what I say--the probability is that I
do not possess the information to give you. Secondly, if I did possess
it, my relations with the family would preclude my imparting it. I am
the attorney to the Castlemaines."
"Their confidential attorney?"
"Some of the business I transact for them is confidential."
"But see here, Mr. Knivett--what am I to do? I come over at the solemn
command of my father, delivered to me on his death-bed, to put in my
claim to the estate. I find my uncle James in possession of it. He
says it is his. Well and good: I do not say it is quite unlikely to be
so. But when I say to him, 'Show me the vouchers for it, the deed or
the will that you hold it by,' he shuts himself metaphorically up, and
says he will not show me anything--that I must be satisfied with his
word. Now, is that satisfactory?"
"I daresay it does not appear so to you."
"If there was a will made, let them allow me to see the will; if it
was bequeathed by a deed of gift, let me read the deed of gift. Can
there be anything more fair than what I ask? If Greylands' Rest is
legally my uncle James's, I should not be so foolish or so unjust as
to wish to deprive him of it."
Mr. Knivett sat back in his chair, pressing the tips of his fingers
together, and politely listening. But comment made he none.
"To go back home, without prosecuting my claim, is what I shall never
do, unless I am convinced that I have no claim to prosecute,"
continued Anthony. "Well, sir, I shall want a legal gentleman to
advise me how to set about the investigation of the affair; and hence
I come to you."
"I have shown you why I cannot advise you," said Mr.
Knivett--and his manner was ever so many shades colder than it had
been at first. "I am the attorney to Mr. Castlemaine."
"You cannot help me at all, then?"
"Not at all; in this."
It sounded rather hard to the young man as he rose from his seat to
depart. All he wanted was fair play, open dealing; and it seemed that
he could not get it.
"My uncle Peter, with whom I have just been, said a thing that I did
not like," he stayed to remark; "it rather startled me. I presume--I
should think--that he is a man of strict veracity?"
"Mr. Peter Castlemaine? Undoubtedly."
"Well, sir, what he said was this. That were I to spend my best years
and energies in the search after information, I should be no wiser at
the end than I am now."
"That I believe to be extremely probable," cordially assented the
lawyer.
"But do you see the position in which it would leave me? Years and
years!--and I am not to be satisfied one way or the other?"
The attorney froze again. "Ah, yes; true."
"Well, sir, I will say good-day to you, for it seems that I can do no
good by staying, and I must not take up your time for nothing. I only
wish you had been at liberty to advise me."
Mr. Knivett made some civil rejoinder about wishing that he had been.
So they parted, and the young man found himself in the street again.
Until now it had been one of the brightest of days; but during this
short interview at the lawyer's, the weather seemed to have changed.
The skies, as Anthony Castlemaine looked up, were now dull and
threatening. The clouds had lowered. He buttoned his warm coat about
him, and began his walk back to Greylands.
"Je crois que nous aurons de la neige," he said, in the familiar
language to which he was most accustomed, "et je n'ai pas de
parapluie. N'importe; je marcherai vite."
Walk fast! And to Greylands! Could poor Anthony Castlemaine have
foreseen the black pall of Fate, already closing upon him like a
dreadful shadow, he had turned his steps away from Greylands for ever.