Mr Hampton was the first to break the silence.
"Mr George Harrington is at present absent from home."
"I beg your pardon," was the retort, in firm, convincing tones; "Mr
George Harrington is here present, and eager to be confronted with this
man."
"As soon as he returns, sir, you and he will doubtless meet; and, as a
matter of course, I presume you will lay claim to the estate?"
"I am not thinking of the estate now, sir. I want to meet this man--I
want to be brought face to face with him. I'll soon bring him to his
knees, and make him confess. The villain!--the murderous wretch! I--I
beg pardon, ladies. You do not know the truth. This man, Dan Portway,
struck me down, and, believing me dead, has imposed upon you all."
"There! I knew it all the time," cried Mrs Hampton emphatically.
"My dear Rachel!"
"Oh, don't talk to me, Phineas. I knew he couldn't be our George
Harrington. A nasty, low-minded, drinking wretch, whose presence I
would not have tolerated for a minute if it had not been for Gertrude
here. I knew it all the time; something seemed to say to me, as soon as
I set eyes upon him, `This man is a cheat.'"
"My dear madam," cried their visitor, smiling, "now you have set eyes on
me I hope there is no such whisper to your inner self."
"Indeed there is not, sir."
"My dear Rachel?" cried the lawyer firmly, "this is extremely
indiscreet. We are face to face with a very great difficulty."
"No difficulty at all. Wait till the wretched man comes back, and then
send him about his business."
"You are talking like an inconsistent child, Rachel," said the lawyer
sternly. "Mr George Harrington--"
"The assumed Mr George Harrington," interposed the new-comer.
"I beg your pardon, sir; until we have the most incontrovertible proofs
of the truth of what you advance, this is Mr George Harrington to us;
and you seem to forget the old adage: `Possession is nine points of the
law.'"
"Oh, no, I do not," said the young man quickly; "and I do not forget
that, little as I know of the law, I have you and the other executor to
call to account for improperly disposing of my estate."
With a wholesome horror of the legal tedium of the profession to which
he belonged, and startled at the prospect a lawsuit opened out, the old
man sank back in his chair, and, for the moment completely taken aback,
stared at his verbal assailant.
"Pray do not misjudge Mr Hampton," said Gertrude coming to his help.
"He was my grandfather's most trusted friend, and he has acted
throughout with the strictest impartiality. If he has been mistaken--
which we do not know yet," she said, colouring deeply beneath the young
man's admiring gaze, "he will, I am sure, do everything that is right."
"I am sure he will, quite sure."
"This is a terrible position in which we are all placed," continued
Gertrude, with quiet, matter-of-fact courtesy.
"Yes, a very terrible position, my dear," said the old lawyer, full of
gratitude for the way in which she had come to his help when, to his
annoyance, he had been completely nonplussed; "and this gentleman must
do nothing rash."
"Will it be rash to seize this scoundrel, and break his neck?"
"Certainly, sir," said the old man, with the comic gravity of one who
takes everything as the French say, _au pied de la lettre_. "You are in
England now and not in the Far West, where your most famous Justice is
Judge Lynch."
"I wish he had hold of this man."
"Yes, exactly, my dear sir; but listen to simple, matter-of-fact reason.
You see, of course, how the executors are placed."
"Oh, yes, I see," said the young man, who was watching Gertrude all the
time.
"Prove your position then, my dear sir, and rely upon it you shall have
justice."
"Am I to understand by these words that the executors will offer no
opposition?"
"I am sorry to say, sir, that the executors are powerless. They have,
as they believed, done their duty conscientiously and well. Your
actions for the moment, it seems to me, will be two. One for ejectment
against Mr George Harrington."
"Against the impostor, sir."
The lawyer made a deprecatory motion.
"The other against the unfortunate executors. Perhaps I am wrong, but
all this is so sudden that I must confess to being a little off my
regular balance."
"Look here, sir," cried the young man bluffly. "I have passed my life
among tough, lawless men; but there are plenty out West who are true,
rough nature's gentlemen. My father was one of these, and I've tried to
follow out his teachings. I suppose I shall have to do what you say--go
to law; but if it is made plain to me that you and your fellow executor
have done your duty as gentlemen, and have unwittingly been imposed
upon, why I'd sooner give up everything than come down upon you."
"Thank you, sir, thank you," said the old man in a low tone; "thank you
for myself and for Doctor Lawrence."
"Doctor Lawrence!" cried the young man with animation; "ah, I know him
by name."
"And I say thank you, too, Mr George Harrington," began Mrs Hampton.
"My dear Rachel," said the old lawyer reprovingly, "you are making an
admission."
"Of course I am. I said Mr George Harrington, because I believe firmly
that we have been imposed upon. I am glad to see you back again,
George," she continued, holding out her hand; "and you may depend upon
having my help. There, there, there, Phineas, don't look at me like
that," she continued, as the young man grasped her hand. "You feel the
same as I do in your human heart, though you cannot in your legal mind.
My making an admission does not injure your position behind your books.
I say we have been tricked, and the sooner we repent in sackcloth and
ashes the better."
"Come," cried the young man, "here's sunshine through the clouds. I
have your support, madam, and that of our dear old granny here."
"Yes, yes," said the old housekeeper, who had wept herself nearly blind,
and quite dry. "It's him, Mr Hampton. Oh, I'm sure it's him."
"That's right, old lady; and now I want to enlist another's sympathy in
my cause. Miss Bellwood--Gertrude--I came here to-night to claim my
heritage, and to see the lady who would, in all probability, be my wife.
You will shake hands?"
He held out his brown, sinewy hand and gazed in the troubled eyes before
his, as the poor girl stood trembling by Mrs Hampton's side, while the
rest looked on curiously.
For one moment she shrank and hesitated, then, as if unable to resist
the influence of the eyes which held hers, she slowly raised her hand,
to have it clenched with a firm, strong pressure, before it was raised
to the holder's lips to be reverently kissed and then let fall.
"This is really very much out of order," said Mr