"And Parkington?" said Maynadier.
"I left him, after supper, at my house, to go to the State House.—Old Moses, my butler, says he remained in the drawing-room, reading, until a little after ten, when he left, to go to the Coffee-house. And Sparrow says, he reached there about half-after-ten."
"He was not to Reynolds' Tavern in the meantime?" Maynadier asked.
"No—in that point Reynolds is very positive. He says that Brandon had no visitors in the evening."
"Then, there must be two Sir Edward Parkingtons, and both friends of Baltimore," said Maynadier. "It is entirely possible, of course, but most unlikely."
"You still hold to it that we are entertaining an impostor?" asked the Governor.
"No—not exactly—I am ready to be convinced either way. In the interim, I should let the letters decide. He presented them and they are genuine; they, and his conduct, will have justified your recognition."
"His conduct has been quite exemplary—I have not heard anything but the best reports of him. He does not, even at times, drink to excess; he does not gossip; and he pays his debts without being dunned, which is much to his credit. He borrowed two hundred pounds from me, after his arrival—having lost everything in the shipwreck, you remember—and repaid it, the other day, immediately upon his return to Annapolis. And he apologized for keeping it so long. Damned decent, I call it!"
Richard Maynadier pulled on his pipe, and gazed through the windows, across the esplanade to the dock, where a ship had just let go her anchor.