“Dear William,” the old lady said tearfully, “I feared it was so. I knew him too well to suppose that he would leave my letters unanswered had it been otherwise.”
“If it is any business matter, madam, I am his confidential lawyer, and have been for thirty years.”
“Mr. Boughton, I am Sir William’s own first cousin; our mothers were sisters,” Mrs. Baines said with deep emotion.
“Dear me, dear me,” answered the lawyer thoughtfully.
“When we were children we were rocked in the same cradle.”
“Most touching, I am sure;” and still he appeared to be turning something over in his mind.
“I know that he has a sincere affection for me, but of late years he has been so frequently indisposed that he has not been able to show it as he wished.”
“Frequently the case, my dear lady, frequently the case,” Mr. Boughton said soothingly. “May I ask you to tell me what other members of his family survive? I am a little uncertain in the matter.”
“Mr. Boughton, I am his mother’s sister’s child, and the nearest relation he has in the world. The others have been dead and gone these many years. There may be some distant cousins left, but we have never recognized them.”
“I understand,” he said; “most interesting. And you wish to see him on family business, I presume?”