ere to get money from you
for certain tidings which he brought; tidings which if true would be
of great importance to you. As I take it, however, he has altogether
failed in his object."

"And how do you come to know all this, sir?"

"Merely from having heard that man mention his own name. I also
have come with the same tidings; and as I ask for no money for
communicating them, you may believe them to be true on my telling."

"What tidings?" asked Owen, with a frown, and an angry jerk in his
voice. No remotest notion had yet come in upon his mind that there
was any truth in the story that had been told him. He had looked upon
it all as a lie, and had regarded Mollett as a sorry knave who had
come to him with a poor and low attempt at raising a few pounds. And
even now he did not believe. Mr. Prendergast's words had been too
sudden to produce belief of so great a fact, and his first thought
was that an endeavour was being made to fool him.

"Those tidings which that man has told you," said Mr. Prendergast,
solemnly. "That you should not have believed them from him shows only
your discretion. But from me you may believe them. I have come from
Castle Richmond, and am here as a messenger from Sir Thomas,--from
Sir Thomas and from his son. When the matter became clear to them
both, then it was felt that you also should be made acquainted with
it."

Owen Fitzgerald now sat down, and looked up into the lawyer's face,
staring at him. I may say that the power of saying much was for the
moment taken away from him by the words that he heard. What! was it
really possible that that title, that property, that place of honour
in the country was to be his when one frail old man should drop away?
And then again was it really true that all this immeasurable misery
was to fall--had fallen--upon that family whom he had once known so
well? It was but yesterday that he had been threatening all manner
of evil to his cousin Herbert; and had his threats been proved true
so quickly? But there was no shadow of triumph in his feelings.
Owen Fitzgerald was a man of many faults. He was reckless,
passionate, prone to depreciate the opinion of others, extravagant
in his thoughts and habits, ever ready to fight, both morally and
physically, those who did not at a moment's notice agree with him.
He was a man who would at once make up his mind that the world was
wrong when the world condemned him, and who would not in compliance
with any argument