Part 15 (2/2)

”Unfortunately, no!” he replied. ”He did remarkably well to a certain point--then he made some most foolish and risky speculations in American railroads, lost pretty nearly everything he'd made, and died a poorish man.”

”Oh--he's dead, then?” remarked Burchill.

”He's dead--years ago,” replied Barthorpe. ”He died before I came to England. I, of course, was born out there. I----.”

”Never mind you just now,” interrupted Burchill. ”Keep to the earlier branches of the family. Your grandfather had one other child?”

”A daughter,” a.s.sented Barthorpe. ”I never saw her, either. However, I know that her name was Susan. I also know that she married a man named Wynne--my cousin's father, of course. I don't know who he was or anything about him.”

”Nothing?”

”Nothing--nothing at all: My Uncle Jacob never spoke of him to me--except to mention that such a person had once existed. My cousin doesn't know anything about him, either. All she knows is that her father and mother died when she was about--I think--two years old, and that Jacob then took charge of her. When she was six years old, he brought her to live with him. That was about the time I myself came to England.”

”All right,” said Burchill. ”Now, we'll come to you. Tell about yourself. It all matters.”

”Well, of course, I don't know what you're getting at,” replied Barthorpe. ”But I'm sure you do. Myself, eh? Well, I was put to the Law out there in Canada. When my father died--not over well off--I wrote to Uncle Jacob, telling him all about how things were. He suggested that I should come over to this country, finish my legal training here, and qualify. He also promised--if I suited him--to give me his legal work.

And, of course, I came.”

”Naturally,” said Burchill. ”And that's--how long ago?”

”Between fifteen and sixteen years,” answered Barthorpe.

”Did Jacob Herapath take you into his house?” asked Burchill, continuing the examination which Barthorpe was beginning to find irksome as well as puzzling. ”I'm asking all this for good reasons--it's necessary, if you're to understand what I'm going to tell you.”

”Oh, as long as you're going to tell me something I don't mind telling you anything you like to ask,” replied Barthorpe. ”That's what I want to be getting at. No--he didn't take me into the house. But he gave me a very good allowance, paid all my expenses until I got through my remaining examinations and stages, and was very decent all around. No--I fixed up in the rooms which I've still got--a flat in the Adelphi.”

”But you went a good deal to Portman Square?”

”Why, yes, a good deal--once or twice a week, as a rule.”

”Had your cousin--Miss Wynne--come there then?”

”Yes, she'd just about come. I remember she had a governess. Of course, Peggie was a mere child then--about five or six. Must have been six, because she's quite twenty-one now.”

”And--Mr. Tertius?”

Burchill spoke the name with a good deal of subtle meaning, and Barthorpe suddenly looked at him with a rising comprehension.

”Tertius?” he answered. ”No--Tertius hadn't arrived on the scene then.

He came--soon after.”

”How soon after?”

”I should say,” replied Barthorpe, after a moment's consideration, ”I should say--from my best recollection--a few months after I came to London. It was certainly within a year of my coming.”

”You remember his coming?”

<script>