"If you would come to the point, Miss Plantagenet, and——"
"I am coming to it, Durham," she said quickly. "Don't worry me. It is this way: Sir Simon objected to Alice because he knew nothing of her parentage."
"I know nothing myself," said Alice, sadly.
"Well then, I intend to tell you now. You are perfectly well born and you have every right to the name of Malleson, though why Sir Simon thought you hadn't I can't say. Give me your hand, my love, and I'll tell you who you are as concisely as possible."
Alice did as she was told, and Miss Plantagenet began in a hurry, as though anxious to get over a disagreeable task. Durham and Bernard listened with all their ears. Miss Berengaria noticed this.
"You needn't look so eager," she said tartly; "the story is dull. Alice, do you remember that I told you I was engaged once to a wicked fool?"
"Yes—you said——"
"There's no need to repeat what I said. I am quite sure it isn't edifying. I have far too long a tongue, but old age will be garrulous—drat it! Well then, Alice, that man who said he loved me and lied was your grandfather. He married a girl with money, for then I had only my looks, and I was handsome," said Miss Berengaria, emphatically; "but George—his name was George and I've hated it ever since—didn't want beauty or brains. He wanted money, and got it, along with a weeping idiot whose heart he broke. I swore never to look on a man again, and when my father died I came to live at The Bower. But I heard that George's wife had died, leaving him one daughter——"
"That was me," said Alice, hastily.
"Nothing of the sort. I said that George—his other name doesn't matter at present, although it can be mentioned if necessary—I said that George was your grandfather. The daughter grew up and married your father, who was a colonel in the Indian army. But both your parents died when you were young. I received you from your dying mother's arms and I sent you to a convent. I couldn't bear the sight of you for months," said the old lady, energetically. "You have a look of handsome George, and handsome he was. Well then, when you grew up and behaved yourself, I took you from the convent, and you have been with me ever since."