The Nether Millstone

by Fred M. White

"I have no doubt that that was real enough," Lady Dashwood smiled tenderly. "Mary did rush up to your room, and a fine scolding she got from the nurse for it. But you can settle all that with our dear girl later. Let us get one thing over at a time. You have not the slightest idea who made that attack on you?"

Ralph confessed that such was the case, and Lady Dashwood proceeded to enlighten him. She told Ralph everything that she had gleaned for herself, and that Slight had acquainted her with. Ralph's face was very grave and stern as he listened to the story.

"A very pretty plot," he said. "I can see it all quite clearly now. It was invented by Mayfield. It never occurred to me till now that Mayfield guessed who I was. You see he had seen my father. Very lately Mayfield had been in dire need of money. I had seen to that. He could guess why I stood aside and let it appear as if Speed was the heir of the property; he could see that I did this to save Mary, knowing that I could stop it later and claim my own. But this gave Mayfield a chance to blackmail Speed whilst he had a grip on the family exchequer. After that was done, Speed could go hang, as far as Mayfield was concerned. The whole thing was spoiled by my chance meeting with Speed in his mother's house. She could tell him who I really was. Hence the plot that nearly killed me. Perhaps I have been a little bit too clever. If ever I come across my friend Vincent Speed again----"

"You will never do that," Lady Dashwood said. "The man is dead. He perished in yesterday's storm, crossing from Jersey to Granville in a rickety boat. There is a paragraph here in the papers. The man seems to have assumed his own name again, for his linen was marked Vincent Speed. And old Slight told me that he meant to escape in that way. On the whole, my dear Ralph, it will be just as well to save scandal as much as possible. Of course, the neighbours will naturally want to know a great deal, but we need not talk too much."

"I quite agree with that, though I fancy that the family pride will get short shrift from me," Ralph laughed. "You had better put it down to the fact that I had a democratic mother. But have you heard anything of Mayfield?"

"He has gone, Ralph, nobody knows where. There was a good deal about him in yesterday's papers--the disappearance of a City man, and strange stories of his swindled clients. I understand that a warrant on some charge or another has been obtained for his arrest. But he will never be found, Ralph; he is too cunning for that. On the whole, it will be better for you to tell the simple truth, that you had not the slightest idea who caused your accident."

"Well, as a matter of fact, I haven't," Ralph said. "But, of course, Mary must know all these things. I can only rejoice in the misfortune that has brought us together, and opened her eyes to the truth that love is best of all things. I suppose she has no idea----"

"None whatever," Lady Dashwood said eagerly. "Slight will say nothing, and George Dashwood has been got out of the way on purpose. But is it not time, my dear boy, that Mary should be told the whole story? You need not fear any longer that her heart is given to Ralph Darnley, and that Sir Ralph Dashwood is quite a secondary consideration."

Ralph laughed with a tender inflection in his voice.

"I was going to do it after lunch," he said. "And positively I feel quite nervous about it. You are very anxious to see us married, grandmother?"