The words dropped from his lips like hail-stones when a storm is spent. He began to shake and quiver in all his limbs, then fell into his chair, with one elbow on the table shrouding his face. Sir John and Butler looked at each other in dumb astonishment; the sudden passion of that man was like the burst of a volcano which gives forth no warning smoke. The silence became oppressive.
“Did you ever know the lady?” inquired Butler, who respected no man’s feelings, and never allowed laws of etiquette to interfere with his curiosity.
Murray withdrew the hand slowly from his face, and looked at his questioner with dull, dreamy eyes for some moments. The eager curiosity in that face brought back his thoughts; he was not a man to expose his heart long under a gaze like that.
“Yes,” he said, leaning back in his chair, “The Granby title is among the most ancient in our country, and the more remarkable because the entail extends to females of the blood as well as males.”
“Ha!—is that so, Johnson?” inquired Butler, quickly.
“Yes. This fact was among the secrets entrusted to my father, and transmitted to me.”
“And the estates must be very large to allow of accumulations like the deposits in your custody,” said Butler, keenly alive to his own interests.
“I believe they are among the finest in England,” said Sir John, drily.
Butler started up, and walked the room, urged into action by selfish excitement. Murray again shaded his face with one hand, while Sir John examined the draft once more.
“Are you sure,” inquired Butler, at last, “are you sure, Sir John, that this lady was legally married to Queen Esther’s son? for, after all, everything depends on that.”