"All right."
Hugh Ritson returned to the bed-head. "Have you heard," he said in a subdued voice, "that the doctors have operated on the girl Mercy, and that she is likely to regain her sight?"
"Eh? What?" Drayton had started up in bed. Then rolling down his sleeves and b.u.t.toning them leisurely, he added: "But that ain"t nothing to me."
Hugh Ritson left the room. He was in spirits indeed, for he had borne even this encounter with equanimity. As he pa.s.sed through the house, Brother Peter entered at the porch with a letter in his hand.
"Is Parson Christian coming?" said Hugh.
"Don"t know "at I"ve heard," said Peter. "He"s boddered me to fetch ye a scribe of a line. Here "tis."
Hugh Ritson opened the envelope. The note ran:
"I cannot reconcile it to my conscience to break bread with one who has broken the peace of my household; nor is it agreeable to my duty as a minister of Christ to give the countenance of my presence to proceedings which must be a sham, inasmuch as the person concerned is an imposter--with the which name I yet hope to brand him when the proper time and circ.u.mstances arrive."
Hugh smiled as he read the letter; then he thrust a shilling into Peter"s unyielding hand, and shot away.
"The parson will not come," said Hugh, drawing Bonnithorne aside; "but that can not matter. If he is Greta"s guardian, you are her father"s executor." Then, raising his voice, "Gentlemen," he said, "my brother wishes us to begin breakfast; he will join us presently."
The company was soon seated; the talk was brisk and cheerful.
"Glorious prospect," said a gentleman sitting opposite the open window.
"Often wonder you don"t throw out a bay, Mr. Ritson."
"I"ve thought of it," said Hugh, "but it"s not worth while to spend such money until one is master of one"s own house."
"Ah, true, true!" said several voices in chorus.
Drayton entered, his eyes red, his face sallow. "Morning, gents," he said in his thick guttural.
Two of the gentlemen rose, and bowed with frigid politeness. "Good morning, Mr. Ritson," said the third.
The servant had followed Drayton into the room with a beefsteak underdone. "Post not come?" he asked, shifting his plates.
"It can"t be long now," said Bonnithorne, consulting his watch.
"Sooner the better," Drayton muttered. He took some papers from a breast-pocket and counted them; then fixed them in his waistcoat, where his watch would have been if he had worn one.
When breakfast was done, Hugh Ritson took certain doc.u.ments from a cabinet. "Be seated, gentlemen," he said. All sat except Drayton, who lighted a pipe, and rang to ask if the postman had come. He had not.
"Then go and sharpen up his heels."
"My duty would be less pleasant," said Hugh Ritson, "if some of the facts were not already known."
"Then we"ll take "em as read, so we will," put in Drayton, perambulating behind a cloud of smoke.
"Paul, I will ask you to be seated," said Hugh, in an altered tone.
Drayton sat down with a snort.
"I have to tell you," continued Hugh Ritson, "that my brother known to you as Paul Ritson, is now satisfied that he was not the heir of my father, who died intestate."
There were sundry nods of the grave noddles a.s.sembled about the table.
"Fearful shock to any man," said one. "No wonder he has lost heart and grown reckless," said another.
"On becoming aware of this fact, he was anxious to relinquish the estate to the true heir."
There were further nods, and some muttered comments on the requirements of honor.
"I show you here a copy of the register of my father"s marriage, and a copy of the register of my own birth, occurring less than a year afterward. From these, in the absence of extraordinary testimony, it must be the presumption that I am myself my father"s rightful heir."
The papers were handed about and returned with evident satisfaction.
"So far, all is plain," continued Hugh Ritson. "But my brother has learned that he is not even my father"s son."
Three astonished faces were lifted from the table. Bonnithorne sat with head bent. Drayton leaned an elbow on one knee and smoked sullenly.
"It turns out that he is the son of my mother by another man," said Hugh Ritson.
The guests twisted about. "Ah, that explains all," they whispered.
"You will be surprised to learn that my mother"s husband by a former invalid marriage was no other than Robert Lowther, and that he who sits with us now as Paul Ritson is really Paul Lowther."
At this, Hugh placed two further doc.u.ments on the table.
Drayton cleared his throat noisily.
"Dear me, dear me! yet it"s plain enough!" said one of the visitors.
"Then what about Mrs. Ritson--Miss Greta, I mean?" asked another.
"She is Paul Lowther"s half-sister, and therefore his marriage with her must be annulled."
The three gentlemen turned in their seats and looked amazed, Drayton still smoked in silence. Bonnithorne did not raise his head.
"He will relinquish to me my father"s estates, but he is not left penniless," continued Hugh Ritson. "By his own father"s will he inherits five thousand pounds."
Drayton snorted contemptuously, then spat on the floor.
"Friends," said Hugh Ritson again, "there is only one further point, and I am loath to touch on it. My brother--I speak of Paul Lowther--on taking possession of the estates, exercised what he believed to be his legal right to mortgage them. I am sorry to say he mortgaged them deeply."
There was an interchange of astute glances.
"If I were a rich man, I should be content to be the loser, but I am a poor man, and am compelled to ask that those mortgages stand forfeit."
"Is it the law?"
"It is--and, as you will say, only a fair one," Hugh answered.