“Would you claim relationship?”
“Never!” declared Ernest emphatically. “It was he, you say, who prejudiced my grandfather against my poor father.”
“Yes.”
“In order to secure the estate himself?”
“Undoubtedly that was his object.”
“Nothing could be meaner. I would rather live poor all my life than get property by such means.”
“If you have no more questions to ask, Ernest, I will try to sleep. I feel drowsy.”
“Do so, Uncle Peter.”
The old man closed his eyes, and soon all was silent. Ernest himself lay down on a small bed. When he awoke, hours afterward, he lit a candle and went to Peter’s bedside.
The old man lay still. With quick suspicion Ernest placed his hand on his cheek.