“My father is a very nervous man, Miss Heathcote; but I don’t see how he could have made such a mistake as that. As he says, why should he?”
Alice, too, was puzzled.
“Can you remember what you did say, Mr. Walker?”
“I can’t exactly remember what I said,” Mr. Walker answered. “I always had a wretched memory. But I am pretty sure—yes, I am quite sure—I told him his nephew had caused the death of Carry; for I thought she was dead then.”
“That is how the mistake occurred,” Alice said, seeing at last the truth. “You said nephew; and he, knowing from Frank’s own lips, that he had called at your house and had seen your daughter, thought it was he. Probably he the more thought so, because Frank told him how very pretty your daughter was, and Captain Bradshaw warned him not to call again, because he might be losing his heart.”
“He never did call but once, Miss Heathcote,” Carry said, glad even now to know why Frank Maynard had never come again to see her. “But we never knew that Mr. Maynard was Captain Bradshaw’s nephew. Indeed, how should we? We always thought that—that he was the only nephew.”
“I see it all now, Mr. Walker. You thought Captain Bradshaw had only one nephew, and accused him. Captain Bradshaw knew one of his nephews had been to your house and admired your daughter, and naturally thought at once of him. Poor Frank, poor Frank!”
“But why did not Mr. Maynard defend himself, Miss Heathcote?”
“He never had an opportunity,” Alice said. “My uncle wrote to him a very violent letter, not, I believe, mentioning the exact offence, but turning him off for ever; and as they had not been,”—and Alice coloured a little,—“on very good terms for some little time before, I suppose Frank was too high spirited to reply. Though I wonder he did not write, too. Still, I can’t blame him for that. But oh!” she burst out, as the thought struck her,—“oh, the wickedness, the vileness of the other! He knew the fault for which Frank was turned off, and which made him my uncle’s sole heir, and yet all this time he has encouraged the mistake, and taken Frank’s place, while Frank has been working for his bread.”
“And has he really done that?” Carry asked. “Has he really let Mr. Maynard be accused all this time?”