"Probably a week from now,--ten days at the latest."

"Then let me make you a proposition. Besides my acquisition of which you
have just learned I have been favored in other ways, and I have just
purchased a house in the beautiful town of H----, where you and I met
for the first time. This house I have remodelled into a summer
residence; and Mrs. Gault and myself, with two or three friends, intend
going up tomorrow for a two-months' stay. Now, my proposition is this:
when you get ready to return, take a train on the Fitchburg Railroad,
and go by the way of Albany and the Hudson river. Stop off at the little
station of C----, and come up to H----, and spend a day with your old
friend. I will meet you at the station myself. Nothing would give me
greater pleasure, and I know the lady who was once your client would
unite with me in the invitation."

"The temptation is too great to resist," I responded, after a moment's
reflection, "and I accept with pleasure."

A week later I alighted from Christopher Gault's carriage at the door of
a beautiful summer cottage, not a mile from where my vacation had been
spent in '79. His own groom led the horse to the stable, and Mrs. Gault
met us on the veranda. She welcomed me in her charming manner, making a
pleasant allusion as she did so to our first meeting as attorney and
client. We chatted pleasantly for a half hour, when a bell announced
that dinner was ready, and we repaired to the dining-room, where a meal
was served, simply, but most tastefully. "Now," said Mr. Gault, as we
rose from the table, "perhaps you have in mind the promised explanation
of my rather precipitate departure from this attractive region some time
ago; and, if Mrs. Gault will excuse us, we will take a little walk.

"You will remember," he began, as we walked leisurely down the
well-shaded path in the narrow country road, "that two years ago I
showed to you a picture of a lady whom we have just left. You also
remember that, while I gave you to understand that we were strongly
attached to each other, I was very far from being enthusiastic about it
as a young lover might be. You did not know the reason then, but it was
simply a question of _blood_.

"In the year 1795 flagrant act of treason was committed against the
Government of Great Britain and His Majesty King George III. My
great-grandfather was then a large property holder, not far from London,
and he figured prominently in public affairs.

"Although