y.
"But I begged him to allow me to come first in order that I might speak
to you privately."

"Well," said John Rex, "we are in private. What have you to say?"

"I want to tell you that I forbid you to carry out the plan you have for
breaking up Sir Richard's property."

"Forbid me!" cried Rex, much relieved. "Why, I only want to do what my
father's will enables me to do."

"Your father's will enables you to do nothing of the sort, and you know
it." She spoke as though rehearsing a series of set-speeches, and Sarah
watched her with growing alarm.

"Oh, nonsense!" cries John Rex, in sheer amazement. "I have a lawyer's
opinion on it."

"Do you remember what took place at Hampstead this day nineteen years
ago?"

"At Hampstead!" said Rex, grown suddenly pale. "This day nineteen years
ago. No! What do you mean?"

"Do you not remember?" she continued, leaning forward eagerly, and
speaking almost fiercely. "Do you not remember the reason why you
left the house where you were born, and which you now wish to sell to
strangers?"

John Rex stood dumbfounded, the blood suffusing his temples. He knew
that among the secrets of the man whose inheritance he had stolen was
one which he had never gained--the secret of that sacrifice to which
Lady Devine had once referred--and he felt that this secret was to be
revealed to crush him now.

Sarah, trembling also, but more with rage than terror, swept towards
Lady Devine. "Speak out!" she said, "if you have anything to say! Of
what do you accuse my husband?"

"Of imposture!" cried Lady Devine, all her outraged maternity nerving
her to abash her enemy. "This man may be your husband, but he is not my
son!"

Now that the worst was out, John Rex, choking with passion, felt all the
devil within him rebelling against defeat. "You are mad," he said. "You
have recognized me for three years, and now, because I want to claim
that which is my own, you invent this lie. Take care how you provoke me.
If I am not your son--you have recognized me as such. I stand upon the
law and upon my rights."

Lady Devine turned swiftly, and with both hands to her bosom, confronted
him.

"You shall have your rights! You shall have what the law allows you!
Oh, how blind I have been all these years. Persist in your infamous
imposture. Call yourself Richard Devine still, and I will tell the
world the shameful secret which my son died to hide. Be Richard Devine!
Richard Devine was a bastard, and the la