"I come from a long talk with Mr. Castlemaine," said George, after a minute's pause, putting his elbow on the opposite end of the mantel piece to face her while he spoke "I have been asking him for you, Ethel."
"Ye--s?" she faltered, her eyes glancing up for a moment, and then falling again. "Asking him to-day?"
"You are thinking that it is not the most appropriate day I could have chosen: and that's true. But, in one sense, I did not choose it. We had future plans of different kinds to discuss, and this one had to come in with them. I come to make a confession to you, Ethel, to crave your pardon. The name under which I have won you, George North, is not my true name. At least, not all my name. I am a Castlemaine. Mr. Castlemaine's nephew, and that poor lost Anthony's brother."
Ethel looked bewildered. "A Castlemaine!" she repeated. "How can that be?"
"My dear, it is easy to understand. Mr. Basil Castlemaine, he who settled abroad, was the eldest brother of this house, you know, years ago. Anthony was Basil's elder son, I his younger. I came over to discover what I could of Anthony's fate, and I dropped temporarily the name of Castlemaine, lest my being recognised as one of the family might impede my search. My uncle James condones it all; and I believe he thinks that I was justified. I have now resumed my name--George North Castlemaine."
Ethel drew a deep breath. She was trying to recover her astonishment.
"Would it pain you very much, Ethel, to know that you would make no change in your residence?--that you would spend your life at Greylands' Rest?"
"I--do not understand you," she faintly said, a vision of remaining under Mrs. Castlemaine's capricious control for ever, and of being separated from him, rushing over her like an ugly nightmare.
"Greylands' Rest is to be my home in future, Ethel. Mr. and Mrs. Castlemaine leave it----"
"Yours!--your own?" she interrupted in excitement. "This house! Greylands' Rest?"