f, that was less
familiar with the head that had a gray wig on than with cracking heads
by help of a good shillelah that didn't know what a wig was. As it was
earlier in the morning than Mr. Brooks's usual hour I had to sit
kicking my heels in a dismal panelled anteroom till the great lawyer
came in. He was a smooth-faced serious-looking man, rather elderly,
and he passed through the anteroom without so much as casting a look
at me, and was followed by a melancholy man in rusty black who had
told me to take a chair, holding in his hand the letter Lady Mary had
written. After a short time the man came out again, and, treating me
with more deference than when he bade me be seated, asked me kindly
if I would step this way and Mr. Brooks would see me.

"You are Mr. O'Ruddy, I take it," he said in a tone which I think he
thought was affable.

"I am."

"Have you brought with you the papers referred to in this letter?"

"I have."

And with that I slammed them down on the table before him. He untied
the bundle and sorted out the different documents, apparently placing
them in their right order. After this he adjusted his glasses more to
his liking and glanced over the papers rapidly until he came to one
that was smaller than the rest, and this he read through twice very
carefully. Then he piled them up together at his right hand very
neatly, for he seemed to have a habit of old maid's precision about
him. He removed his glasses and looked across the table at me.

"Are you the son of the O'Ruddy here mentioned?"

"I am."

"His eldest son?"

"His only son."

"You can prove that, I suppose?"

"Troth, it was never disputed."

"I mean there would be no difficulty in getting legal and documentary
proof."

"I think not, for my father said after my first fight, that it might
be questioned whether I was my mother's son or no,--there was no doubt
that I was his."

The legal man drew down his brows at this, but made no comment as, in
tones that betrayed little interest in the affair, he demanded:

"Why did your father not claim this property during his lifetime?"

"Well, you see, Mr. Brooks, my father was an honest man, and he never
pretended the property was his. From what I remember of his
conversation on the subject the Earl and him was in a tight place
after a battle in France, and it was thought they would both be made
prisoners. The Earl had his deeds with him, and if he were caught the
enemy would demand a la