“I found his affairs in an awful muddle. You know that business about the coal mine. Well, I’ve managed to right his affairs. I wasn’t thinking of any profit to myself over the business, I just did it because it was the right thing to do.
“Now I want to be perfectly plain with you. I might have carried on this game always and lived in Rochester’s shoes only for two things, one is his wife, the other is a feeling that has been coming on me that if I carried on any longer I might go dotty. Times I’ve had attacks of a feeling that I did not know who I was. It’s leading this double life, you know. Now I want to get right back and be myself and cut clear of all this. You can’t think what it has been, carrying on this double life, hearing the servants calling me ‘your lordship.’ I couldn’t have imagined it would have acted on the brain so. I’ve been simply crazy to hear someone calling me by my right name—well, that’s the end of the matter, I want to settle up and get back to the States—”
The door opened and a servant appeared.
“Dr. Simms has arrived, your grace.”
The Duke of Melford rose from his chair.
“One moment,” said he to Jones. He left the room closing the door.
Jones tipped the ash of his cigar into a jardinière near by.
He was astonished and a bit disturbed by the cool manner in which his wonderful confession had been received. “Can it be they are laying low and sending for the police?” thought he.
He was debating this question when the door opened and the Duke walked in, followed by a bald, elderly, pleasant-looking man; after this latter came a cadaverous gentleman, wearing glasses.
The bald man was Dr. Simms, the cadaverous, Dr. Cavendish.