He would go and rule Wycliffe some day, and show the world how Marion Vance, the despised and scorned, had reared her son. Oh, if she could but have lived to be proud of him and enjoy the good that was coming to him! This was ever the burden of his thought, but it could not be, and he could only strive to remember and follow her pure teachings, and win for himself the respect that had been denied her.
But first he had a work to do. He could not go to Wycliffe yet, much as he desired to re-establish his mother’s reputation. He must first find the man who had sought her ruin, to “pass away a summer holiday and to have a jolly good time.” If he were dead he would find his grave and be satisfied. If he was living, he would search until he found him, brand him with his traitorous designs, and prove to him that in his wickedness he had overreached himself.
Then, and not until then, could he present himself before the Marquis of Wycliffe, and demand to be acknowledged as his heir.
CHAPTER XXV
THE RIGHTFUL HEIR
He did not realize how long he had been sitting there musing over these things until a slight movement of Miss Grafton’s aroused him.
“Thank you, and pardon me for my absent-mindedness,” he said, starting. “I shall not soon forget your kindness; and may I trespass upon it still further? Will you allow me to make a copy of what I have read?”
“Certainly, if it will be of any benefit to you,” Miss Grafton answered, the look of kindly sympathy still on her face.
He noticed it, and, after a moment’s thoughtful hesitation, said, with a rising flush:
“This young bride of whom the rector has written was my mother.”
“Was?” she repeated in a sad tone.