The solicitor was received at the Castle door by old Bradley, and at Sir Jeremiah’s door by Felkin, the new attendant, who showed him in. The interview between the invalid and Mr. Steadman lasted half an hour, after which the latter was driven back to Carlisle by George Taylor.
That same evening a telegram was sent off by Mr. Philip Baddock to Captain de Mazareen in London, containing the few words:
“Sir Jeremiah very ill. Come at once.”
Twenty-four hours later Captain Hubert arrived at Appledore Castle—too late, however, to see his grandfather alive.
Sir Jeremiah Baddock had died an hour before the arrival of his once so tenderly cherished grandson, and all hopes of a reconciliation had now been mercilessly annihilated by death.
The end had come much more suddenly than Doctor Thorne had anticipated. He had seen the patient in the morning and thought that he might last some days. But when Sir Jeremiah had heard that Captain de Mazareen had been sent for he had worked himself into a state of such terrible agitation that the poor, overtaxed brain and heart finally gave way.
2
The events of those memorable days—in the early spring of 1904—are so graven on my memory that I can recount them as if they happened yesterday.
I was maid to Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk at the time. Since then she has honoured me with her friendship.
Directly after Captain Hubert’s first estrangement from his grandfather, she and I came down to Cumberland and lived very quietly at Kirk Hall, which, as you know, is but a stone’s throw from Appledore.