"I'll step upstairs and have a look at the old gentleman," said Percival.
"There's a young lady with him," Mr. Tulliver remarked, in a somewhat mysterious tone.
"A young lady!" the other cried. "What young lady?"
"His granddaughter."
"Indeed!"
"Yes; she came up from the country yesterday evening, and she's been sitting with him ever since. He seems to have taken to her very much. You'd think she'd been about him all her life; and she's to have all his money, he says. I wonder what his only son will say to that," added Mr. Tulliver, looking very curiously at Percival Nowell, "supposing him to be alive? Rather hard upon him, isn't it?"
"Uncommonly," the other answered coolly. He saw that the shopman suspected his identity, though he had carefully avoided all reference to the relationship between himself and the old man in Luke Tulliver's presence, and had begged his father to say nothing about him.
"I should like to see this young lady before I go up to Mr. Nowell's room," he said presently. "Will you step upstairs and ask her to come down to me?"
"I can go if you wish, but I don't suppose she'll leave the old gentleman."
"Never mind what you suppose. Tell her that I wish to say a few words to her upon particular business."