When Fortescue entered the library the man was standing with his back to him, gazing at the portrait of Mrs. Fortescue, which hung over the chimney-piece. He was a tall thin man, with black hair, and, as he turned round on his entrance, the Captain could see that his face was sallow, that he had a short beard and small rat-like eyes, and that he was wearing spectacles.
"Good evening, sir. I hope you will excuse my intruding at this hour, but I come on a matter of importance."
Captain Fortescue motioned him to a chair, and said he supposed it was a business matter which had brought him there.
"Not exactly, sir. Your father did do business with me at times, and it is in connection with one of these times that I want to see you. The fact is that a letter, which Mr. Fortescue wrote to you last week, has, by some mistake, come into my hands."
Kenneth looked eagerly at the envelope which Makepeace drew out of the breast pocket of his coat. What revelation did it contain? And how unfortunate that that revelation should have fallen into the hands of a stranger!
The envelope was a foolscap one, he could see that; precisely similar to the one he had found in the safe.
He stretched out his hand for it eagerly.
"Wait a minute, sir," said the man. "Allow me, if you please, to explain to you how this letter came into my possession. Last week—it would be Wednesday, I think—your father came into my shop; it was the last time, I believe, that the old gentleman was out.
"'Makepeace,' he said, 'I want some foolscap paper.'
"My assistant brought some out and showed it to him. We have some blue and some white. He selected the white, sir, but when he looked at it, he declared that it was poorer in quality than what he had bought of me before. I told him that could not be the case, inasmuch as I had bought it all from the same firm and at the same time. Well, he seemed very much put out, and he shouted and stormed at me; it was a way he had, you know, sir, and he wanted to make out I was trying to impose on him by giving him different paper.