"IT'S HIM; IT'S HIM!"
"Come in."
Mrs Denton entered timidly, looking nervously at the stranger, and then
said deprecatingly:
"Mrs Hampton sent me, sir, to say she should be glad to speak to you,
sir."
"Yes, yes, of course. Well, sir, I have heard all you wanted to say?"
"No, not yet," cried the young man excitedly. "I say, old lady, you
remember me?"
The old woman looked at him wistfully, and shook her head.
"No, sir, no," she said.
"Oh, yes, you do," he cried merrily. "Don't you remember washing me
when I was a little chap in a sort of tin bath with spots on it, red
spots, and the inside was white, with shiny places, where the paint had
come off."
The old woman gazed at him wildly.
"You remember? The bottom curved up and as I stood on it, gave way, and
then came up again with a loud bump."
She still gazed at him silently, while he seemed to be trying to evoke
old memories.
"Yes, to be sure, and you put me to bed in a great four-post affair,
with heavy tassels and bobs round the top, and they swung to and fro,
and--to be sure, yes, you set a great night-shade full of round holes on
the floor, with a tin cup of water in it, and a long thin rushlight in
the middle. Oh, yes, I remember seeing those holes reflected on the
wall."
"Yes, my dear," cried the old woman excitedly, "and it has never been
used since. No, Mr Hampton, sir, there are no long rushlights now."
"Come, sir," cried the young man excitedly, "we are beginning to feel
bottom after all."
"But--but--" faltered the old woman, and then stopped.
"Why, my dear old lady," cried the young man, taking her withered hands,
"I can remember you holding my little palms together as I knelt on the
bed, and teaching me to say a kind of prayer. Let me see, what was it--
I've never heard it since--yes, that's it:
"Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
God bless the bed that I lay on,
Four corners to my bed,
Six angels round me spread,
Two at head, two at feet,
And two to guard me while I sleep."
The poor old woman's jaw dropped, her eyes dilated, and her hands went
up, as the speaker went on, and as he ended the simple, pious old
doggerel, she burst into a hysterical fit of sobbing as she cried:
"Yes, yes, yes, it is--it is him, sir. Oh, my dear, dear boy; and you
growed to be such a fine young man. It is you, Master George. Thank
God! Thank God!"
She flung her arms about his neck, and he held her to his breast,
kissing her withered old brow as he patted her cheek gently, ignorant of
the fact that Mrs Hampton and Gertrude had followed to the open door,
and were waiting impatiently for the old woman's return.
"Come, old granny," cried the young man, "this is more like coming home.
Heaven bless all memories, say I."
"Yes, my dear," sobbed the old woman, looking at him proudly, as she
laid her hands on his breast, and gazed in his face.
"And--Ha, ha, ha! The sugar drops you made me, and--by Jove, yes.
What's become of the old fruit-knife, and the white needle-case, and
that bit of sweet root you used to keep in that big old pocket. Don't
you remember? You gave them to me to play with."
The old woman uttered a little laugh full of childish delight as she
bent sidewise, thrust one arm through an opening, raked about, and, as
playfully as if she were dealing with a child, brought out by degrees
the articles he had named, all preserved as old folk do preserve such
things, and in addition a little square tin box, with grotesque heads
stamped thereon.
"But you don't recollect that?" she said playfully.
"Yes, I do," he cried eagerly; "it's the one out of which I spilt all
the pins."
"May we come in?" said Mrs Hampton, in her stern, harsh voice.
"Yes, yes, ma'am," cried the old woman excitedly. "Miss Gertrude, my
dear, oh, be quick! It's him; it's him; and me not to have known him
directly I saw his face."
A short, dry cough from the lawyer checked her, as, flushed and
trembling with excitement, Gertrude stood once more in the room.
"Yes, yes, Denton," said the old lawyer; "this is all very good
evidence, but--"
"Oh, it's him, sir! it's him! Miss Gertrude, we've all been dreadfully
cheated. It's him; it's him!"
"Mrs Denton, have the goodness to be silent," said Mr Hampton sternly.
"Yes, yes, granny," said the young man, laying his arm caressingly on
her shoulder; "be quiet now and wait. By-and-bye I hope to convince all
here as strongly as I have convinced you."
"You shall have fair play, sir," said the lawyer gravely. "I regret to
be compelled to treat you as I do; and I regret also that I must
withhold all confidence in what you have said. I can only say, sir,
that you have impressed me most favourably."
"And I'm sure _you_ never drink, my dear?" cried Denton.
"Mrs Denton?"
"I beg pardon, sir; it's only that I'm so glad to see his bonny face
again."
"I shall," continued the old lawyer--
"Excuse me for interposing, sir," said the young man excitedly, for he
had flushed as he met Gertrude's eyes fixed wonderingly, and yet with a
pleased expression upon his. "You are a lawyer, and the ways of the law
are said to be slow. The case is this--"
He spoke at the old lawyer, but he looked at Gertrude the while.
"I'm George Harrington, and during my illness the man I trusted has,
believing me dead, come over and robbed me of my birthright. The first
thing to be done is to bring us face to face."
"Yes," assented Mrs Hampton; "to bring them face to face."
Gertrude drew a long breath, and it seemed as if a terrible load had
been lifted from her breast.
"Without confronting the man who, I say, has imposed upon you all, and
whom I believe to be Dan Portway, I have no means of proving who I am--
save by the tattooed marks."
"Which he possesses, too," said the lawyer gravely.
"What! Oh, there must be an end to this. He claims to be George
Harrington. I, George Harrington, say that he is a liar and impostor.
Now, then, I am ready to confront him. Where is this man?"
There was a dead silence in the room.