“Who is this child?—where is it?—where did it come from at this late day?” questioned Mrs. Richards, who felt as if all the world was slipping away from her.
“Wait one moment and I will introduce you,” the lawyer said, as, rising, he gently retired to his inner office.
He returned almost immediately with a lady on his arm. Mrs. Richards started to her feet and uttered a piercing scream the moment her eyes fell upon her.
The lady was Star Gladstone!
“That girl again!” shrieked Mrs. Richards. “You don’t mean to tell me that she is the heir to Sir Charles Thornton’s property?”
“Yes, madam, this young lady and no other; but I was not aware that you had the honor of her acquaintance,” responded Mr. Compton, with some surprise, as he led Star to a seat.
“But her name is Gladstone——”
“Have a little patience and I will explain still further,” interrupted the lawyer, who was beginning to be disgusted with one who gave way so to passion.
“Miss Gladstone tells me that she has been known by that name all her life; that until her eighteenth birthday she was not aware that she was entitled to any other. But her father left a package of papers at his death, containing a history of his life, with all the necessary proofs, but charged her not to open it until she was eighteen years of age. In this he related what I have already told you, and also the fact that when he was a child, his father, through the death of a relative, succeeded to the title and estates of the Thorntons of Devonshire, upon condition that he assumed the name. Such things happen often here in England, you know, as in the case of Lord Carrol, whom you are acquainted with. When the elder Mr. Gladstone, or Thornton, died, of course William, his eldest son, succeeded to the baronetcy. Albert, the second son, upon his return and settlement in a parish of Derbyshire, gave his name as Rev. Albert Gladstone, and under this name married a Miss Chudleigh, who was also discarded by her family for wedding a poor dissenting clergyman—one who was deemed far beneath her socially, as no one suspected his connections with the Thorntons. After her death, and when Mr. Gladstone found that he also had not long to live, he said he could not reconcile himself to the thought of giving his orphan daughter to the care of those to whom he had been a stranger so long, although his own blood flowed in their veins; so he arranged to send her to a distant relative of his mother’s in America, who agreed to take charge of her and her education for her sake. This last, however, Miss Gladstone has told me, and her residence in that country at the time of the death of the late Sir Charles, and her ignorance regarding her relationship to him, accounts for the fact that we have but just discovered her claim. Everything is as plain as black and white can make it. We have looked up the records, and find they correspond with the papers in her possession, and among which is a certificate of her parents’ marriage, and one of her own baptism, together with other important documents; and now, I think, you cannot fail to perceive that Miss Gladstone, being Sir Charles Thornton’s own cousin, is the nearest of kin, and we shall therefore be obliged to give her claim the precedence. I regret, madam,” the lawyer concluded, in his blandest tones, “that we did not learn of this in season to save you the trouble and expense of such a long journey. However, I trust that you have reaped enjoyment sufficient from the trip to compensate you in a measure for your disappointment.”
Mrs. Richards looked blankly from one to another of the occupants of that room, as if she could not, even yet, comprehend the magnitude of the calamity which had so unexpectedly overtaken her.