"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," a.s.sented 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.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

MR HAMPTON IS UNEASY.

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 a.s.sumed 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 a.s.sailant.

"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 grat.i.tude 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.