rto been in deceiving
me, it is not the least use your attempting to do so on the present
occasion. I am quite willing to state that it was my friend Sir George
Legrath who put me in the way of communicating with you. I called upon
him on Tuesday morning and obtained your address from him."

He nodded his head.

"You will pardon me, I hope, if I seat myself," he said. "It seems that
this interview is likely to be a protracted one, and as I am no longer
young I doubt if I can go through it standing."

With this apology he seated himself on a block of stone at the foot of
one of the graceful columns which in bygone days had supported the
entrance to the Temple, and, resting his chin on his hands, which again
leaned on the carved handle of his stick, he turned to me and in a
mocking voice said: "This air of mystery is no doubt very appropriate,
my friend; but since you have taken such trouble to find me, perhaps you
will be good enough to furnish me with your reason?"

I scratched in the dust with the point of my stick before I replied.
Prepared as I was with what I had to say to him, and justified as I felt
in pursuing the course I had determined to adopt, for the first time
since I had arrived in Naples a doubt as to the probability, or even the
sanity, of my case entered my head.

"I can quite understand your embarrassment, my dear Mr. Forrester," he
said, with a little laugh, when he saw that I did not begin. "I am
afraid you have formed a totally wrong impression of me. By some
mischance a train of circumstances has arisen which has filled your mind
with suspicion of me. As a result, instead of classing me among your
warmest and most admiring friends, as I had hoped you would do, you
distrust me and have nothing but unpleasant thoughts in your mind
concerning me. Pray let me hear the charges you bring against me, and I
feel sure--nay, I am certain--I shall be able to refute them. The matter
of what occurred at Cleopatra's Needle has already been disposed of, and
I do not think we need refer to it again. What else have you to urge?"

His voice had entirely changed. It had lost its old sharpness, and was
softer, more musical, and infinitely more agreeable than I had ever
known it before. He rose from his seat and moved a step toward me.
Placing his hand upon my arm, and looking me full and fair in the face,
he said:

"Mr. Forrester, I am an old man--how old you can have no idea--and it is
too late in my life for