But when you set up a separate interest, when
you try to throw dust in my eyes, to hoodwink me--me, Horatio Paget,
a man of the world, possessed of some little genius for social
diplomacy--you attempt to do that which no man ever yet succeeded in
doing, and you immediately release me from those obligations which an
honourable man holds sacred. It was my glove which you saw in Mr.
Goodge's parlour. I had a very satisfactory interview with that reverend
person while you were absent from Ullerton on some short excursion, as to
the purpose of which I am still in the dark. On certain terms Mr. Goodge
agreed to give me the privilege of selecting a stated number from the
letters of Mrs. Rebecca Haygarth. I have reason to believe that I made a
judicious choice; for the information thus obtained placed me at once
upon a track which I followed industriously until it led me to a
triumphant result."
"I do not understand--" began Valentine; but the Captain did not allow
him time to say more.
"You do not understand that there could be any other genealogical line
than that which you and George Sheldon fitted together so neatly. You
have neither of you the experience of life which alone gives wideness of
vision. You discovered the connections of the Haygarth and the Meynell
families in the past. That was a step in the right direction. The
discovery, so far as it went, was a triumph.
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