"My dear aunt! God bless her! she was the only creature in the house who treated me with the least kindness. The very servants were instructed to slight and insult me by your amiable son, and his servile tutor."
"He was a fool," said Mr. Moncton, refilling his glass. "As to Theophilus, it was natural for him to dislike the lad who had robbed him of his mother's affections, and who left him behind in his lessons. You were strong enough, and bold enough to take your own part, and if I mistake not, did take it. And pray, Sir, who was it that freed you from the tyranny of Mr. Jones, when he found that the complaints you brought against him were just?"
"But not until after I had been first condemned, and brutally maltreated. The less said on that score, uncle, the better."
He laughed—his low, sarcastic, sneering laugh, but did not choose to be angry.
"There are circumstances connected with your birth, Geoffrey, that evidently were the cause of these slights. People will not pay the same respect to a natural child, which they do to a legitimate one."
"Good God!" I exclaimed, starting from my chair. "You don't mean to insinuate—you dare not say, that I am a bastard?"
"Such is the fact."
"It is a falsehood! invented to ruin me!" I exclaimed, defiantly. "One of these days you shall be forced to prove it such."
"I shall be very happy to do so—if you will only give me the proofs."
"Proofs!" I exclaimed, bitterly, "they are in your own possession—or you have destroyed them!"