The Seamy Side, Chapters XXXIII-XXXVI [pp. 321-339]

THE SEAMY SIDE. 323
house. Lord! if he knew! Shall I jump up
and tell them all? I would if I thought that
Anthony wouldn't go mad."
" I am here," said Stephen, who did indeed
look black, "without my solicitor. The course
is unusual, but the interview must be considered
privileged. One thing, however, before we be gin: if Mr. Billiter is going to revive old stories
in his usual pleasant manner, I shall go away at
once."
I have nothing to say at this interview,"
said the lawyer; " at least, I think I have nothing
to say."
"The communication we have to make to
you, Stephen," said Augustus, "is of so grave a
nature, so important, and so unexpected, that
we have invited Anthony's solicitor, your father's
solicitor, to be present. You will acknowledge
that we were right?"
"Important and unexpected? Then you
have, I suppose, found out that Anthony was
never married? "
These were brave words, but Stephen was
evidently ill at ease. In fact, he had passed an
uneasy time. Alderney Codd's warning, which
he had met with bravado, came back to him in
the dark hours. And after a sleepless night he
kept his appointment with shaken nerves.
"We have decided," Augustus continued,
"on at once telling you everything."
" That is so far candid. Probably you have
concluded between you that it will be to your
advantage to tell me everything?"
"You shall judge of that yourself, Cousin
Stephen." Augustus was very grave, and spoke
slowly. "We have known you all your life. It
was in this room that you received dismissal from
the House in which you might even have become
a partner."
He spoke as if no higher honor, no greater
earthly happiness could befall any man than to
become a partner in the House of Anthony
Hamblin and Company.
The boy, looking through the chink of the
screen, shook his head solemnly.
" D- the partnership, and the House too!"
said Stephen. "I told you that I would not listen to the revival of old stories. If that is all
that you have to say-"
He rose and seized his hat.
"It is not all; pray sit down again. We have
to go back twenty years. Carry your memory
back for,that time. Where are you?"
"I am waiting to hear," said Stephen, sullenly.
Then Augustus told Stephen the same story
which Miss Nethersole had told Anthony; almost, too, in the same words. He told how two
men had visited a little town when on a fishing
excursion, how one of them eloped with a girl of
eighteen, named Dora Nethersole, and how she
had died deserted and neglected at Bourne mouth.
Stephen listened with an unmoved counte nance.
"This is the sort of information," he said,
"which one gets from advertising, and church
registers, and that sort of thing. How does it
bear upon the case?"
" You shall hear immediately, Stephen. The
man who eloped with the girl, who was married
to her at Hungerford, who lived with her at Lul worth, and who deserted her there, leaving her
to starve and die of neglect and sorrow, was
not-Anthony at all. It was no other than
yourself, Stephen."
" I allow you to put the case your own way,"
said Stephen, "because I am anxious for you to
get to the point, if any, which bears upon pres ent business."
" It was you, and not Anthony, who deserted
Dora Hamblin; it was Anthony, and not you,
who soothed her last moments, and consoled her
in the hour of death. Here is a copy of her last
journal, which you may take away and meditate
upon."
"I know all about her death," said Stephen,
callously; "Anthony told me of that. It is an
old, old story; twenty years old, and forgotten.
What has it to do with the business in hand, and
the claims of that girl?"
"Everything; because you have been quite
right all along-Anthony was never married-"
" Ah! " said Stephen, a sudden flush of joy
and relief crossing his face.
"Was never married at all, and he left no
will."
"Then I am the heir of all."
He raised himself upright, and looked round
with an air of mastership.
"You are the heir of all," repeated Augustus, solemnly.
"Good. I give you notice that I will do nothing for the girl-nothing at all."
"Stop," said Augustus; "more remains to
be told. When Anthony wrote to you that your
wife was dead, he did not inform you of what he
thought you unworthy to know-that she left a
child."
"A child!"
"A girl. She became Anthony's care. He
brought her up to consider herself his daughter.
Alison Hamblin is the daughter of you, Stephen,
and of Dora your wife."
"My gum!" This was the whispered utterance of the boy behind the screen.
Stephen's face became darker still. He gazed
with hard eyes at the speaker.
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