"Do you know what old Gran Ellis said?" asked Jack. "She said a man's own true self is God in him. She was a queer old bird."
"His true self," said Aunt Matilda. "His true self! And I should say old Mrs. Ellis was a doubtful guide to young people, judging from her own family."
"She made a great impression on me, Marm," said Jack politely.
Mr. George had brought the papers referring to the new property. Jack read various documents, rather absently. Then the title deeds. Then he studied a fascinating little green-and-red map, "delineating and setting forth," with "easements and encumbrances," whatever they were. There was a bank-book showing a balance of four hundred pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence, in the West Australian Bank.
Jack told about his visit to Grant Farm, and the man under the umbrella. They all laughed.
"The poor fellow had a bad start," said Mr. George. "But he was a good farmer and a good business man, in his right times. Oh, he knew who he was leaving the place to, when Rackett drew up that will."
"Gran Ellis told me about him," said Jack. "She told me about all the old people. She told me about my mother's old sister. And she told me about the father of this crazy man as well, but—"
Mr. George was looking at him coldly and fiercely.
"The poor fellow's father," said the old man, "was an Englishman who thought himself a swell, but wasn't too much of a high-born gentleman to abandon a decent girl and go round to the east side and marry another woman, and flaunt round in society with women he hadn't married."
Jack remembered. It was Mary's father: seventh son of old Lord Haworth. What a mix-up! How bitter Old George sounded!