was a very nice, pleasant man, not a bit like his father--a very good and
considerate landlord, and much respected. But he's gone now--died three
years ago; and his son, a young man of twenty-two or three, succeeded
him--that's the present Earl, gentlemen. And of him we see very little;
he scarcely ever stayed at Ellingham Park, except for a bit of shooting,
since he came to the title. And now," she concluded, with a shrewd glance
at the old lawyer, "I wonder if you see, sir, what it was that came into
my mind when this Mr. John Ashton came here a few weeks ago, especially
after I heard him say what he did, and after I saw how he was spending
his time here?"

"I've no inkling, ma'am; I've no inkling!" said Mr. Pawle. "You
wondered--"

"I wondered," murmured Mrs. Summers, bending closer to her listeners, "if
the man who called himself John Ashton wasn't in reality the long-lost
Lord Marketstoke."




CHAPTER X

THE PARISH REGISTER


Mr. Pawle, after a glance at Viner which seemed to be full of many
meanings, bent forward in his chair and laid a hand on the old
landlady's arm.