"Mortifying that he should have to secrete it," remarked Idris, "when if the story of the runic ring be true, the wealth is his by hereditary right, as the eldest lineal descendant of Orm the Viking."
"Mr. Breakspear, your right to that treasure is greater than the earl's."
Idris was disposed to think so, too, in virtue of the long years he had spent in his attempts to decipher the runic ring. But this was not what Lorelie meant.
"Did you not notice what my father says in one of these letters, that Eric Marville claimed to be heir to a peerage?"
"It did not escape me. A surprising statement, if true."
"And the interest taken by your father in the runic ring, the heirloom of the Ravengars, proves his peerage to have been the Earldom of Ormsby."
"I fear you are dealing in fanciful hypotheses," smiled Idris.
"Your likeness to the family portraits of the Ravengars is very remarkable."
"Mere coincidence."