"If you desire it,ma'am,"said Trottle,with a gentleness of manner that I had never noticed in him before."But pray don't think me wanting in duty and right feeling,if I beg you to try and wait a little.You are agitated already,and a first meeting with the child will not help to make you so calm,as you would wish to be,if Mr.Forley's messenger comes.The little boy is safe up-stairs.
Pray think first of trying to compose yourself for a meeting with a stranger;and believe me you shall not leave the house afterwards without the child."I felt that Trottle was right,and sat down as patiently as I could in a chair he had thoughtfully placed ready for me.I was so horrified at the discovery of my own relation's wickedness that when Trottle proposed to make me acquainted with the confession wrung from Barsham and his mother,I begged him to spare me all details,and only to tell me what was necessary about George Forley.
"All that can be said for Mr.Forley,ma'am,is,that he was just scrupulous enough to hide the child's existence and blot out its parentage here,instead of consenting,at the first,to its death,or afterwards,when the boy grew up,to turning him adrift,absolutely helpless in the world.The fraud has been managed,ma'am,with the cunning of Satan himself.Mr.Forley had the hold over the Barshams,that they had helped him in his villany,and that they were dependent on him for the bread they eat.He brought them up to London to keep them securely under his own eye.He put them into this empty house (taking it out of the agent's hands previously,on pretence that he meant to manage the letting of it himself);and by keeping the house empty,made it the surest of all hiding places for the child.Here,Mr.Forley could come,whenever he pleased,to see that the poor lonely child was not absolutely starved;sure that his visits would only appear like looking after his own property.Here the child was to have been trained to believe himself Barsham's child,till he should be old enough to be provided for in some situation,as low and as poor as Mr.Forley's uneasy conscience would let him pick out.He may have thought of atonement on his death-bed;but not before--I am only too certain of it--not before!"A low,double knock startled us.
"The messenger!"said Trottle,under his breath.He went out instantly to answer the knock;and returned,leading in a respectable-looking elderly man,dressed like Trottle,all in black,with a white cravat,but otherwise not at all resembling him.
"I am afraid I have made some mistake,"said the stranger.
Trottle,considerately taking the office of explanation into his own hands,assured the gentleman that there was no mistake;mentioned to him who I was;and asked him if he had not come on business connected with the late Mr.Forley.Looking greatly astonished,the gentleman answered,"Yes."There was an awkward moment of silence,after that.The stranger seemed to be not only startled and amazed,but rather distrustful and fearful of committing himself as well.
Noticing this,I thought it best to request Trottle to put an end to further embarrassment,by stating all particulars truthfully,as he had stated them to me;and I begged the gentleman to listen patiently for the late Mr.Forley's sake.He bowed to me very respectfully,and said he was prepared to listen with the greatest interest.
It was evident to me--and,I could see,to Trottle also--that we were not dealing,to say the least,with a dishonest man.
"Before I offer any opinion on what I have heard,"he said,earnestly and anxiously,after Trottle had done,"I must be allowed,in justice to myself,to explain my own apparent connection with this very strange and very shocking business.I was the confidential legal adviser of the late Mr.Forley,and I am left his executor.Rather more than a fortnight back,when Mr.Forley was confined to his room by illness,he sent for me,and charged me to call and pay a certain sum of money here,to a man and woman whom Ishould find taking charge of the house.He said he had reasons for wishing the affair to be kept a secret.He begged me so to arrange my engagements that I could call at this place either on Monday last,or to-day,at dusk;and he mentioned that he would write to warn the people of my coming,without mentioning my name (Dalcott is my name),as he did not wish to expose me to any future importunities on the part of the man and woman.I need hardly tell you that this commission struck me as being a strange one;but,in my position with Mr.Forley,I had no resource but to accept it without asking questions,or to break off my long and friendly connection with my client.I chose the first alternative.Business prevented me from doing my errand on Monday last--and if I am here to-day,notwithstanding Mr.Forley's unexpected death,it is emphatically because I understood nothing of the matter,on knocking at this door;and therefore felt myself bound,as executor,to clear it up.That,on my word of honour,is the whole truth,so far as Iam personally concerned."
"I feel quite sure of it,sir,"I answered.
