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I feebly nodded—for I was still very weak.
“Well, then, I only wished to say to you that you have yourself toblame. Did I not do all I could for you? From the beginning I tried todrive you from the house. By every means, short of betraying my husband,I tried to save you from him. I knew that he had a reason for bringingyou here. I knew that he would never let you get away again. No one knewhim as I knew him, who had suffered from him so often. I did not dare totell you all this. He would have killed me. But I did my best for you.As things have turned out, you have been the best friend that I haveever had. You have set me free, and I fancied that nothing but deathwould do that. I am sorry if you are hurt, but I cannot reproach myself.I told you that you were a fool—and a fool you have been.” She crept outof the room, the bitter, singular woman, and I was never destined to seeher again. With what remained from her husband’s property she went backto her native land, and I have heard that she afterwards took the veilat Pernambuco.
It was not until I had been back in London for some time that thedoctors pronounced me to be well enough to do business. It was not avery welcome permission to me, for I feared that it would be the signalfor an inrush of creditors; but it was Summers, my lawyer, who firsttook advantage of it.
“I am very glad to see that your lordship is so much better,” said he.“I have been waiting a long time to offer my congratulations.”
“What do you mean, Summers? This is no time for joking.”
“I mean what I say,” he answered. “You have been Lord Southerton for thelast six weeks, but we feared that it would retard your recovery if youwere to learn it.”
Lord Southerton! One of the richest peers in England! I could notbelieve my ears. And then suddenly I thought of the time which hadelapsed, and how it coincided with my injuries.
“Then Lord Southerton must have died about the same time that I washurt?”
“His death occurred upon that very day.” Summers looked hard at me as Ispoke, and I am convinced—for he was a very shrewd fellow—that he hadguessed the true state of the case. He paused for a moment as ifawaiting a confidence from me, but I could not see what was to be gainedby exposing such a family scandal.
“Yes, a very curious coincidence,” he continued, with the same knowinglook. “Of course, you are aware that your cousin Everard King was thenext heir to the estates. Now, if it had been you instead of him who hadbeen torn to pieces by this tiger, or whatever it was, then of course hewould have been Lord Southerton at the present moment.”
“No doubt,” said I.
“And he took such an interest in it,” said Summers. “I happen to knowthat the late Lord Southerton’s valet was in his pay, and that he usedto have telegrams from him every few hours to tell him how he wasgetting on. That would be about the time when you were down there. Wasit not strange that he should wish to be s
o well informed, since he knewthat he was not the direct heir?”
“Very strange,” said I. “And now, Summers, if you will bring me my billsand a new cheque-book, we will begin to get things into order.”
THE USHER OF LEA HOUSE SCHOOL
Mr. Lumsden, the senior partner of Lumsden and Westmacott, thewell-known scholastic and clerical agents, was a small, dapper man, witha sharp, abrupt manner, a critical eye, and an incisive way of speaking.
“Your name, sir?” said he, sitting pen in hand with his long, red-linedfolio in front of him.
“Harold Weld.”
“Oxford or Cambridge?”
“Cambridge.”
“Honours?”
“No, sir.”
“Athlete?”
“Nothing remarkable, I am afraid.”
“Not a Blue?”
“Oh, no.”
Mr. Lumsden shook his head despondently and shrugged his shoulders in away which sent my hopes down to zero. “There is a very keen competitionfor masterships, Mr. Weld,” said he. “The vacancies are few and theapplicants innumerable. A first-class athlete, oar, or cricketer, or aman who has passed very high in his examinations, can usually find avacancy—I might say always in the case of the cricketer. But the averageman—if you will excuse the description, Mr. Weld—has a very greatdifficulty, almost an insurmountable difficulty. We have already morethan a hundred such names upon our lists, and if you think it worthwhile our adding yours, I daresay that in the course of some years wemay possibly be able to find you some opening which——”
He paused on account of a knock at the door. It was a clerk with a note.Mr. Lumsden broke the seal and read it.
“Why, Mr. Weld,” said he, “this is really rather an interestingcoincidence. I understand you to say that Latin and English are yoursubjects, and that you would prefer for a time to accept a place in anelementary establishment, where you would have time for private study?”
“Quite so.”
