Ascough and
told him about your offer, and he, of course, explained the position to
me."
"But,"--Mr. Bullsom paused as though striving to straighten out the
matter in his own mind, "but if you are Lord Arranmore's son there is no
secret about it, is there? Why do you still call yourself Mr. Brooks?"
Mr. Bullsom, whose powers of observation were not remarkably acute,
looking steadily into his visitor's face, saw there some signs of a
certain change which others had noticed and commented upon during the
last few months--a hardening of expression and a slight contraction of
the mouth. For Brooks had spent many sleepless nights pondering upon
this new problem which had come into his life.
"I do not feel inclined," he said, quietly, "for many reasons, to accept
the olive-branch which it has pleased my father to hold out to me after
all these years. I have still some faint recollections of the close of
my mother's life--hastened, I am sure, by anxiety and sorrow on his
account. I remember my own bringing up, the loneliness of it. I
remember many things which Lord Arranmore would like me now to forget.
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