Nathan Gomer turned up his shining yellow visage, and grinned. How Grahame loathed that grin!--it seemed to betoken only mischief.
He motioned to Nathan to take a chair, and, in a husky voice, begged to be informed what fortunate circumstance it was to which he was indebted for the felicity his presence thus unannounced, afforded him.
“A matter I apprehend of no small importance to you, Mr. Grahame,” replied Nathan.
Mr. Grahame gulped. No doubt it was of importance to him; he expected that--most painful importance. What else could it be.
“I think I am prepared,” he said, “for anything you may have to communicate to me, whatever distressing features it may possess.”
“I think not,” said Nathan. “Hearken: you have a new neighbour next door to you;” he pointed as he spoke, and asked--“Do you know his name?”
Mr. Grahame looked at him with some surprise. What did such a question portend?
Nathan only grinned, and Mr. Grahame answered coldly--
“I am not accustomed to take any notice of my neighbours, or trouble myself to make inquiries respecting them.”
“You would have been interested if you had, in the present instance.”
“Indeed!” ejaculated Grahame, a curl turning his lip.
“Ay! His name is Wilton--Eustace Wilton--ah, you are interested now.”
“What?” he shouted, “the wretched man dying inch by inch in his poverty--a day or so back in the Queen’s Prison, and now”----
“Your next door neighbour, with an income of five thousand a-year, and cash to the tune of sixty thousand pounds.” replied Nathan Gomer, with forcible emphasis.
“By what magic has it been accomplished?” inquired Grahame, apparently stupefied by what he heard.
“No magic at all,” returned Nathan Gomer, grinning. “A simple process of law. Years ago a near relative, named Eglinton, a connection of your own, gave to him an estate”----
“Which the law took from him, exposing a trumped up”----
“Gently, Mr. Grahame, be careful what you say until you have heard more. When our tongues run away with us, we have sometimes occasion to lament the want of a curb. This estate was taken from him by the Court of Chancery, because he failed only to produce the attesting witness.”
“Tush! the witness was a fiction, an imaginary person, who”----
Has recently returned from India, a colonel in the East India Service, and sufficiently tangible to satisfy the law. This officer has not only sworn to the genuineness of the deed of gift, but has proved its validity, by giving information of the existence of a duplicate lodged by Eglinton himself in the hands of a solicitor long since retired from practice. This has been produced, attested to the satisfaction of the Chancellor, and the estate, together with the large arrears accumulated, are in the process of being restored to “Wilton.”