lf. So, then, I have refreshed your memory
a little; you begin to recognize me now. Ay, sir, it is the professor,
your old slave, stands before you, whom, after having starved and
cheated, you put drunk on board a sailing-ship, and packed off to
America; sold, too, deliberately sold, for a sum of money. Every detail
of this transaction is known to me, and shall be attested by competent
witnesses. My memory is a better one than you suspect. I forget nothing,
even to the day and the hour I last stood in this room. Yes," cried
he, turning to his son and addressing him, "I was summoned here to
be exhibited as a spectacle to a visitor, and who, think you, was the
distinguished friend to whose scrutiny I was to be subjected? He was one
who himself had enjoyed his share of such homage,--he was no less a man
than the famous Paul Hunt, tried at Jersey for the murder of Godfrey
Hawke, and how acquitted the world well knows; and he it was who sat
here, the dear friend of the immaculate Mr. Stocmar,--Mr. Stocmar, the
chosen associate of lords and ladies, the favored guest of half the
great houses in London. Oh, what a scandal and a disgrace is here! You
'd rather face the other charge, with all its consequences, than this
one. Where is your laughter now, Stocmar? Where that jocose humor you
indulged in ten minutes ago?"

"Look here, my good friend," cried Stocmar, suddenly starting up from
his chair, while the great drops of sweat hung on his forehead and
trickled along his pale cheeks; "don't fancy that you can pit yourself
against _me_ before the public. I have station, friends, and patrons in
the highest ranks in England."

"My name of Herbert Layton will suffice for all that I shall ask of it.
When the true history of our connection shall be written and laid before
the world, we shall see which of us comes best out of the ordeal."

"This, then, is a vengeance!" said Stocmar, trembling from head to foot.

"Not if you do not drive me to it. There never were easier terms to
escape a heavy penalty. Give me the address of these persons."

"But I know nothing of them. I have not, amongst my whole acquaintance,
one named Hawke."

The old man made no reply, and looked puzzled and confused. Stocmar saw
his advantage, and hastily added,--

"I am ready to pledge you my oath to this."

"Ask him, then, for the address of Mrs. Penthony Morris, father, and of
the young lady her reputed daughter," interposed Alfred.

"Ay, what say yo