JUSTICE MERTON Only son—ah, yes! Your father—
RAVENSBANE My father, I trust, sir, has never forgotten the intimate companionship, the touching devotion, the unceasing solicitude for his happiness which you, sir, manifested to him in the days of his youth.
JUSTICE MERTON Really, your lordship, the—the slight favours which—hem! some years ago, I was privileged to show your illustrious father—
RAVENSBANE Permit me!—Because, however, of his present infirmities—for I regret to say that my father is suffering a temporary aberration of mind—
JUSTICE MERTON You distress me!
RAVENSBANE My lady mother has charged me with a double mission here in New England. On my quitting my home, sir, to explore the wideness and the mystery of this world, my mother bade me be sure to call upon his worship, the Justice Merton; and deliver to him, first, my father’s remembrances; and secondly, my mother’s epistle.
DICKON [Handing to Justice Merton a sealed document.] Her ladyship’s letter, sir.
JUSTICE MERTON [Examining the seal with awe, speaks aside to Mistress Merton.] Cynthia!—a crested seal!
DICKON His lordship’s crest, sir: rooks rampant.
JUSTICE MERTON [Embarrassed, breaks the seal.] Permit me.