"Are you sure?" cried Tait, who was beginning to be bewildered by these successive revelations.
"Sure, sir! as sure as I am of my own innocence. As sure as I am George Larcher, this is the sister of Denis Bantry, who——"
"Denis!"
The interruption came from Mrs. Bezel. She had sat dumfounded at the unexpected appearance of the man whom she had thought dead, and she had said nothing while assertion and denial were going on, but the mention of her brother's name stirred her dormant faculties, and she sat up looking wildly around.
"Denis!" she cried, in a terrified tone. "Is Denis here?"
"Denis is down at Thorston," said Captain Larcher gruffly, "as you no doubt knew well enough."
"I swear I did not. Francis told me Denis was in America."
"Francis?" exclaimed Claude, forgetting to whom the name belonged.
"Francis Hilliston."
"Ah!" said Captain Larcher, with a disdainful look round. "I might have guessed as much. Off with the dead love, on with the living. You have amended the proverb."