to Deadham School, in Essex. She has done so these five years past and more.’
‘Of course. The cub, her protégé, is there. Well?’
‘A ward of her ladyship’s, Herbert Larkins, is at school there. He is now seventeen years of age, is tall and well grown, has fair curly hair and greyish blue eyes. Her ladyship is said to take an immense interest in him. Their interviews are long. She must be very liberal to him; the lad is always well provided with money which he spends freely. He is a fair scholar, has been taught especially to ride and shoot, has learnt foreign languages and all extras.’
‘That is enough, Mr. Oozenam. You have handsomely earned your fee.’
‘It has gone very far,’ Sir Rupert said to himself as soon as he was alone. ‘What an idiot I have been not to have observed her more closely! But let us hope it is not too late even now.’
And then, after a long cogitation, he called for his carriage, and driving first into the neighbouring country town, where he made one or two calls, he bade the coachman next proceed to Farrington Court.
He asked for Lady Farrington, and was in due course ushered into her private boudoir.
‘The time has come, Lady Farrington, as you were good enough to say some time back—the time for plain speaking. I mean to put an end to your tomfooleries once for all. So long as they merely made you appear ridiculous I could have borne with you, although you scandalized our name. But I cannot permit you to plot against me and mine without protest and something more.’
‘Plot?’ she asked, in a voice which anger and agitation combined to make nearly inarticulate.
‘I have discovered all. You have kept your secret well, but I have found it out. This base-born pretender—’
‘He is my own grandson. I have the proofs.’
‘They will not bear the test of legal scrutiny, you know that. On the contrary, I can show that the whole affair is a conspiracy from beginning to end. That this Larkins is an adventurer—’
‘You will not harm him, surely? It is I, only I, who am to blame.’
‘I shall hand him over to the police, prosecute him, and make him pay dearly for his attempt to defraud.’
‘You would not dare,’ she cried aghast. Surprise and indignation combined to confuse her mind, and she did not pause to consider that he had no grounds of procedure; that his threats were vain, and could never be put into execution.
‘I shall not spare him nor you.’
‘Then you shall take the consequences. I will proclaim you to be the villain that you are; will tear you from your present exalted station, and will send you back to your former poverty and rags. You shall be dispossessed. You shall disgorge the rents and all that you have improperly acquired. You—’
He merely laughed at her, mockingly and rudely, which exasperated her beyond all bounds.
‘Begone, sir! You shall not remain here another second to insult me. Begone! or—’
He only laughed more loudly and mockingly than before. Instantly her rage passed into fury which seemed uncontrollable.
‘Begone!’ she cried again, snatching up a sharp-pointed paper knife and rushing on him with so much intention that Sir Rupert precipitately retired. She followed him downstairs with a wild shriek, little recking how completely she was playing into his hands.
The butler had just admitted several other visitors, who heard and saw all that passed. Sir Rupert went up to them apparently for protection, but his first words showed that he was eager for more than this.
‘Gentlemen, you have arrived most opportunely. You can see for yourselves. It is clearly not safe to leave her any longer at large.’
The butler had quelled poor Lady Farrington almost instantly, but although he held her back she was still furious and foamed at the mouth.
‘Scarcely. We cannot refuse the certificate,’ said Mr. Burkinshaw, of Bootle, a local magistrate and magnate. ‘Sir Henry quite agrees with me, and the doctors have no manner of doubt. Poor woman, she ought clearly to be put under restraint.’
And she was, without unnecessary delay.
Thus Herbert Larkins lost his protectress just when his fortune seemed close at hand. The cup was dashed away just before he had lifted it to his lips, with consequences which were by no means pleasant to himself, as will be seen in the next chapter.
CHAPTER IV.
TAKING THE SHILLING.
Herbert Larkins was in the class-room when he was summoned to see a gentleman who had called.
‘I come from Lady Farrington,’ said his visitor, rather abruptly.
He was a tall, dark-eyed man, with a sinister look upon his face.
‘She is well, I hope? Nothing has happened? I half expected her to-day or to-morrow.’
‘She is well, but she cannot come here, and wishes you to go to her at once. You are aware, no doubt—’
‘The time then has arrived?’ Herbert said, a little incautiously.
‘It has arrived. You are ready, I presume?’
‘I must speak to Dr. Jiggs. I cannot leave the school without his permission, of course.’
‘That is all arranged. When you have got your belongings together, we will start. You are not to return here. You know that, I presume?’
‘We are going to join Lady Farrington?’
The visitor bowed assent.
An hour or two later they were in the train and on the road to London.
There was little conversation between them. Herbert was shy, and his companion by no means talkative or sociable.
‘Where does Lady Farrington live?’ Herbert asked.
‘You really don’t know?’
‘She never told me,’ Herbert replied, looking rather shamefaced.
‘She is a strange person, of that you must be aware. It is impossible to account for all she says and does.’
‘She has always been most kind to me,’ Herbert said, stoutly.
‘No doubt,’ the other replied, drily. ‘But perhaps that was a form of eccentricity. People are sometimes too affectionate by half.’
Herbert would have liked some explanation of this speech, but he could not bring himself to ask for it. He only knew that he began to dislike this man excessively, and hoped they might never have much to say to each
