between the lawyer and his friend Carlton, but he only shook his head in
acknowledgment of the friendly wink, and continued to turn over the
pages of that comical but highly interesting periodical which he had
taken up at the commencement of the interview.

"Every lost link in the chain of evidence is, I believe, now complete,"
replied Mr. Capias, "and I am at liberty to communicate to you the
following circumstance which, doubtless, up to the present time you have
been a stranger to." He hereupon cleared his throat, and in a well
modulated voice said:

"Maud Chumly, your great grandmother, the daughter of a Church of
England Clergyman, at the age of eighteen married Arthur Eustace
Carlton, ninth Earl of Castlemere. The result of their union was a son,
a wild, harum scarum sort of a youth who, at the age of nineteen, was
provided with an appointment and sent out to the British Embassy at the
Court of Spain. While here he managed to get entangled and elope with
the wife of a Castillian Hidalgo; they were pursued and overtaken by the
enraged Grandee and his followers; the lady was recovered, but the
husband lost his life in a duel with the gay Lothario who, subsequently,
to avoid the vengeance of the family and the strong arm of the law, fled
to Mexico, where, a few years after, he married the daughter of a French
officer of high rank, by whom he also had an only son, but never
returned to England, nor did he, on the death of his father, assume the
title or take possession of the estate, but resided continually on the
Continent; nor did he by word or deed reveal to his beautiful wife or
child his real position in the Peerage of Great Britain. His son at an
early age was sent to England, and was educated principally at Rugby,
but he also graduated at Cambridge; he afterwards entered the English
army, and during his stay in India married the daughter of a Judge of