nce opined, as the mere menace of a needy adventurer."

With as much brevity as the narrative permitted, Sedley told the story
of Pracontal's claim. It was, he said, an old demand revived; but under
circumstances that showed that the claimant had won over adherents to
his cause, and that some men with means to bring the case to trial had
espoused his side. Pracontal's father, added he, was easily dealt with;
he was a vulgar fellow, of dissipated habits, and wasteful ways; but
his taste for plot and intrigue--very serious conspiracies, too, at
times--had so much involved him that he was seldom able to show himself,
and could only resort to letter-writing to press his demands. In fact,
it was always his lot to be in hiding on this charge or that; and the
police of half Europe were eager in pursuit of him. With a man so
deeply compromised, almost outlawed over the whole Continent, it was not
difficult to treat, and it happened more than once that he was for years
without anything being heard of him; and, in fact, it was clear that he
only preferred his claim as a means of raising a little money, when all
other means of obtaining supplies had failed him. At last, news of his
death arrived. He died at Monte Video; and it was at first believed that
he had never married, and consequently, that his claim, if it deserved
such a name, died with him. It was only three years ago that the demand
was revived, and this man, M. Anatole Pracontal, as he called himself,
using his maternal name, appeared in the field as the rightful owner of
the Bramleigh estates.

"Now this man is a very different sort of person from his father. He
has been well educated, mixed much with the world, and has the manners
and bearing of a gentleman. I have not been able to learn much of his
career; but I know that he served as a lieutenant in a French hussar
regiment, and subsequently held some sort of employment in Egypt. He has
never stooped to employ threat or menace, but frankly appealed to the
law to establish his claim; and his solicitor, Kelson, of Furnivars Inn,
is one of the most respectable men in the profession."

"You have seen this Monsieur Pracontal yourself?"

"Yes. By a strange accident I met him at your brother's, Captain
Bramleigh's, breakfast table. They had been fellow-travellers, without
the slightest suspicion on either side how eventful such a meeting
might be. Your brother, of course, could know nothing of Pracontal's
pretensions;