"He thought, acting on this principle, that if he could get me into his house, I should be glad to fall in with his plans."
"He told me that his son Peter had seen you at Endellion," I said; "that he fell in love with you, that it was the intention of Colman Killigrew to marry you to his son whom you hated, that I should be rendering you a service by taking you to him."
"Do not speak of his son's love," she said; "the thought of it is not pleasant. It is true he told me the same story. I did not sleep in the house that night. Directly after your lawyer had gone I told him I desired to speak with him. He fawned and professed to be delighted. Presently his real reasons for trying to get me into the house came out. He tried to keep them back until his son came home, but in this he failed."
"And what were his reasons?" I asked eagerly in spite of myself.
"The first was this: He said he could prove that my father's marriage was illegal, and—and thus I had no true claim to the Restormel lands. You suspected this?"
I nodded.
"He told me, moreover, that he alone possessed the knowledge whereby it could be proved that I was not the rightful heir. If he did not disclose what he knew, no one would doubt my rights; or even if they doubted, they could have no case against me; if he told what he knew, I should be penniless."
"I see," I cried; "I see. Then he named the price of his silence."
"Yes."