“Percy, dear boy! what have you found?”
“Will you sit down, my lord, and listen to me for a few moments?” The old man did as requested, and the youth went on:
“Lord Allerdale, I am going to surprise you—to wound you; but you must bear it as best you can. When it was first known to me that Lady Cordelia had been taken away—as we know she must have been—my suspicions fell upon—Lord Oakleigh. I believed he was more likely to be the abductor than any other man; and now I am sure of it.”
“Oh, Percy! Don’t say it!”
“My lord, where do you think is his lordship at the present time?”
“He is at Oxford.”
“He was at the Saybrook inn at nine to ten o’clock last evening, my lord. That I know.” And thereupon the young man went on and related all that he had learned from old Rodney, at the Cove, and from Martin Vanyard at the inn. He was sorry to say it, but he was confident that Oakleigh was the offending party.
“My lord,” he pursued, “did Cordelia tell you what Lord Oakleigh said to her on the occasion of their late interview in the garden?”
“She did not tell me all, but I know he was very unkind.”
“Aye,—and he used threats. He bade her beware of him; and—but, my lord, I need not tell you any more.” He had come to the point where his own name had entered into the discussion, and of this he cared not to speak.