At first Mr. Grey refused altogether to believe the assertion made to
him. He had been very conversant with the affairs of the family, and had
even dealt with marriage settlements on behalf of the lady in question.
He knew Mr. Scarborough well,--or rather had not known him, but had heard
much of him,--and therefore suspected him. Mr. Grey was a thoroughly
respectable man, and Mr. Scarborough, though upright and honorable in
many dealings, had not been thoroughly respectable. He had lived with
his wife off and on, as people say. Though he had saved much of his
money for the purpose above described, he had also spent much of it in a
manner which did not approve itself to Mr. Grey. Mr. Grey had thoroughly
disliked the eldest son, and had, in fact, been afraid of him. The
captain, in the few interviews that had been necessary between them, had
attempted to domineer over the lawyer, till there had at last sprung up
a quarrel, in which, to tell the truth, the father took the part of the
son. Mr. Grey had for a while been so offended as to find it necessary
to desire Mr. Scarborough to employ another lawyer. He had not, however,
done so, and the breach had never become absolute. In these
circumstances Mr. Scarborough had sent for Mr. Grey to come to him at
the Albany, and had there, from his bed, declared that his eldest son
was illegitimate. Mr. Grey had at first refused to accept the assertion
as being worth anything, and had by no means confined himself to polite
language in expressing his belief. "I would much rather have nothing to
do with it," he had said when Mr. Scarborough insisted on the truth of
his statement.

"But the evidence is all here," said Mr. Scarborough, laying his hand on
a small bundle of papers. "The difficulty would have been, and the
danger, in causing Mountjoy to have been accepted in his brother's
place. There can be no doubt that I was not married till after Mountjoy
was born."