“Can’t you tell me what you mean?” said Appleby, moving towards her with a little flush of color in his cheeks.
“You are going to England on Saturday,” said Nettie, and slipped out of the door.
[XXXIV — THE RIGHT MAN]
IT was on the Saturday morning the “Cunarder’s” passengers disembarked at Liverpool, and within an hour of the time the answer to the telegrams he despatched came to hand Appleby had started for Darsley. It was, however, late in the afternoon when he arrived there, and proceeded straight to Craythorne’s office. The clerk’s manner made it evident that he was expected, but he was a trifle astonished to find two other men beside the lawyer waiting him when he was shown into a lighted room.
Craythorne closed a little sliding window before he shook hands with him, and then turned to the others.
“This is Colonel Melton, appointed joint trustee with me by the will Anthony Palliser made the night he left for Cuba,” he said. “I think you have met Mr. Earle. He came here with the sanction of Colonel Melton, and Esmond Palliser, on behalf of Miss Wayne, in case anything you have to tell us concerns her. He will, of course, withdraw if you wish it, though both he and Colonel Melton have long been confidential friends of the Palliser family.”
Appleby greeted the two men, and then sat down with a little gleam in his eyes when Craythorne pointed to a chair.
“I should like to tell you that I left my business in New York and came here against my partner’s wishes because I felt it was a duty I owed Miss Wayne and my late comrade’s relatives,” he said. “That was my only motive, and it seems to me desirable that you should realize it.”
“You apparently do not know that you are a legatee under Anthony Palliser’s will,” said Craythorne.
“I was not even aware that he had made one, though he told me that he had made over Dane Cop to me.”