g even over his
shoulders, for he had disdained the peruke then in fashion--and that of
a lady, whose dark eyes and raven ringlets told that her nativity had
been the sunny south.

'Johnson is not unlike the portrait of my father, and is a slim man,'
said Edward. 'He will readily go with me. I will personate my mother. I
am confident the papers are not destroyed, for I have often seen him
when he little dreamed an eye was upon him, examining some papers he
keeps in a small casket on his toilet, and one in particular, a document
of some length, which he has often seemed to me about to tear, but
always replaced.'

'It will do,' said his grandfather. 'Good Mrs. Ally will procure you the
necessary attire. She can be trusted fully, and I will reconcile her and
Johnson, so that we can all work in concert. Those papers secured, with
the evidence of Violetta and the dying deposition of your nurse, with
the evidence of the lady who took charge of your mother, and who is also
alive and in London, I doubt not soon to see you in the enjoyment of
your rights. It will be a strange anomaly--an American a British peer.'

'And then, dear grandfather, you will allow me to repay you, in a small
measure, by my affection and care of your declining years, for all the
anxiety you have endured in securing my interests.'

'Not to me, young man, not to me. My lot on earth is cast. I am here a
fugitive, in danger of a felon's doom. I shall return to honest, plain
America, and there devote the remainder of my life to succoring the poor
and afflicted. Do you likewise here, remembering that you are but the
steward of your wealth. Let the former oppressions of your house be
forgotten in your good deeds. Let your voice be heard in the high court
of which you will be a member, whenever the artizan and the laborer need
a defender from the foul enactments that are there consummated. Let your
passions be subjected to the control of religion and morality--let no
avaricious knave oppress the hard-toiling farmer in your name, but see
to these things yourself. Let your ear be easy of access, and your heart
be open, and then, my Lord, I shall be more than repaid, you will have
had a nobler vengeance than any man could give you, and will earn in
truth a right to bear the proud motto which your fathers arrogated to
themselves, emblazoned, not on your escutcheon, but in the hearts of
grateful men--

"_Second to none in deeds of charity._"'

CHAPTER V