"Well," said Durham, slowly, "your grandfather came to see me the other day on business--"
"I can guess what the business was," put in Bernard, bitterly, and thinking that a new will had been made.
The lawyer smiled. "Quite so. But don"t ask me to betray the secrets of my client. But Sir Simon knew you were in the Imperial Yeomanry, Bernard. He learned that from Beryl."
"Who is, no doubt, spying on me. It is thanks to Julius that I had the row with my grandfather. He--"
"You needn"t trouble to explain," interrupted Durham. "I know. Sir Simon explained. But he also asked me if you knew he was in town."
"I told Bernard," said Conniston, "and you told me."
"Yes. But does Bernard know where Sir Simon is stopping?"
"No," said Gore, emphatically, "I don"t."
"Neither do I. What are you getting at, Mark?"
"It"s a queer thing," went on Durham, taking no notice of Conniston"s question, "but afterwards--yesterday, in fact--Sir Simon wrote saying that he heard from Mrs. Gilroy of an Imperial Yeoman who had been visiting in the kitchen of Crimea Square--"
"What about Crimea Square?" asked Gore, quickly.
"Your grandfather is stopping there--in No. 32; old Jefferies" house."
"Oh! I knew nothing of that. Go on."
"Sir Simon," proceeded the lawyer, looking at Gore, "stated in his letter that the description of the soldier, as given by the maid, applied to you, Bernard."
Gore stared and looked puzzled, as did Conniston. "But I don"t quite understand," said the former. "Do you mean that my grandfather thinks that I have been making love to some servant in Crimea Square?"
"In No. 32. Yes. That is what Sir Simon"s letter intimated to me."
The other men looked at one another and burst out laughing. "What jolly rubbish!" said Lord Conniston. "Why, Bernard is the last person to do such a thing."
"It"s all very well to laugh," said Durham, rather tartly, "but you see, Gore, Sir Simon may think that you went to the kitchen, not to make love to the maid, but to see how he was disposed towards you."
"But, Mark, I haven"t been near the place."
"Are you sure?" asked Mark, sharply.
Bernard, always hot-tempered, jumped up. "I won"t bear that from any man," he said. "You have no right to doubt my word, Durham."
"Don"t fire up over nothing, Gore. It is in your own interest that I speak. I knew well enough that you wouldn"t make love to this housemaid mentioned by Sir Simon--Jane Riordan is her name. But I fancied you might have gone to see if your grandfather--"
"I went to see nothing," replied Gore, dropping back into his chair with a disgusted air. "I don"t sneak round in that way. When my grandfather kicked me out of the house, I said good-bye to Alice and came to London.
I saw you, to get some money, and afterwards I enlisted. I never knew that Sir Simon was in town till Conniston told me. I never knew he lived in Crimea Square till you explained. My duties have kept me hard at work all the time. And even if they hadn"t," said the young man, wrathfully, "I certainly wouldn"t go making love to servants to gain information about my own people."
"Quite so," said Durham, smoothly. "Then why--"
"Drop the subject, Mark."
"Sit down and be quiet, Bernard," said Conniston, pulling him back into his seat, for he had again risen. "Mark has something to say."
"If you will let me say it," said Durham, with the air of a man severely tried by a recalcitrant witness.
"Go on, then," said Bernard, and flung himself into his chair in a rather sullen manner. His troubles had worn his nerves thin, and even from his old schoolfellow he was not prepared to take any scolding. All the same, he secretly saw that he was accusing Durham of taking a liberty where none was meant.
"It"s this way," said the lawyer, when Gore was smoothed down for the time being. "We know that Beryl hates you."
"He wants the money."
"I know that." Durham smiled when he thought of the destroyed will; but he could hardly explain his smile. "Well, it is strange that the description given by the maid of this soldier--and a yeoman, mind you--should be like you. Have you a double?"
"Not that I know of."
"Then someone is impersonating you so as to arouse the wrath of your grandfather against you. Sir Simon is a proud old man, and the idea that you condescended to flirt with--"
"But I didn"t, I tell you!" cried the exasperated Gore.
"No. We know that. But Sir Simon, judging from his letter, thinks so."
"He has no right to do that. My conduct never gave him any reason to think I would sink so low."
"My dear chap," said Conniston, with the air of a Socrates, "when anyone has his monkey up, he will believe anything."
"Conniston is quite right," said the lawyer, "though he expresses himself with his usual elegance. Sir Simon, with Beryl at his elbow, is inclined to believe the worst of you, Bernard, and probably thinks you have deteriorated sufficiently to permit your making use of even so humble an instrument as a housemaid."
"Bah!" said Gore, in a rage. "What right has he to--"
"Don"t be so furious, my dear man. I am advising you for your own good, and not charging seven-and-six either."
This made Bernard laugh. "But it does make a fellow furious to hear his nearest--I won"t say dearest--think so badly of one."
"One"s relatives always think the worst," said Conniston, oracularly.
"Miss Plantagenet thinks so badly of me that I"ll never see that five thousand a year. Miss Malleson will have it, and you, Bernard, will live on it. _Pax! Pax!_" for Bernard gave him a punch on the shoulder.
"d.i.c.k, you"re a silly a.s.s! Go on, Durham."
"Well," said Durham, beginning in his invariable manner, "I fancy that Beryl is up to some trick. You have not been near the place; so someone made up to impersonate you is sneaking round. Of course, there is the other alternative, Mrs. Gilroy may be telling a lie!"
"She wouldn"t," rejoined Gore, quickly. "She is on my side."
"So you told me. But your grandfather thinks otherwise. We were talking about you the other day."
"And Sir Simon said no good of me," was Bernard"s remark. "But what is to be done?"
"Only one thing. Go and see your grandfather and have the matter sifted.
If Mrs. Gilroy is lying you can make her prove the truth. If she tells the truth, you can see if Beryl has a hand in the matter."