to the door. At the sight
of this determination on the part of his strange guest, a cold, uneasy,
vague presentiment seized Mr. Beaufort. There, not flashed, but rather
froze, across him the recollection of his brother's emphatic but
disbelieved assurances--of Catherine's obstinate assertion of her son's
alleged rights--rights which her lawsuit, undertaken on her own behalf,
had not compromised;--a fresh lawsuit might be instituted by the son,
and the evidence which had been wanting in the former suit might be
found at last. With this remembrance and these reflections came a
horrible train of shadowy fears,--witnesses, verdict, surrender,
spoliation--arrears--ruin!

The man, who had gained the door, turned back and looked at him with a
complacent, half-triumphant leer upon his impudent, reckless face.

"Sir," then said Mr. Beaufort, mildly, "I repeat that you had better see
Mr. Blackwell."

The tempter saw his triumph. "I have a secret to communicate which it is
best for you to keep snug. How mauny people do you wish me to see about
it? Come, sir, there is no need of a lawyer; or, if you think so, tell
him yourself. Now or never, Mr. Beaufort."

"I can have no objection to hear anything you have to say, sir," said
the rich man, yet more mildly than before; and then added, with a forced
smile, "though my rights are already too confirmed to admit of a doubt."

Without heeding the last assertion, the stranger coolly walked back,
resumed his seat, and, placing both arms on the table and looking Mr.
Beaufort full in the face, thus proceeded,--

"Sir, of the marriage between Philip Beaufort and Catherine Morton there
were two witnesses: the one is dead, the other went abroad--the last is
alive still!"

"If so," said Mr. Beaufort, who, not naturally deficient in cunning and
sense, felt every faculty now prodigiously sharpened, and was resolved
to know the precise grounds for alarm,--"if so, why did not the man--it
was a servant, sir, a man-servant, whom Mrs. Morton pretended to rely
on--appear on the trial?"

"Because, I say, he was abroad and could not be found; or, the search
after him miscaurried, from clumsy management and a lack of the rhino."

"Hum!" said Mr. Beaufort--"one witness--one witness, observe, there is
only one!--does not alarm me much. It is not what a man deposes, it is
what a jury believe, sir! Moreover, what has become of the young men?
They have never been heard of for years. They are probably