Martin laughingly promised, and forgot all about it until the gentlemen joined the ladies in the drawing-room. Once there, however, he found that not only Miss Fleming, but all the rest of the ladies were waiting for the story, and surrounded him immediately on his entering the room. The other gentlemen laughed at his predicament and Carden advised him to begin at once.
"You might as well go ahead, Dick," he said "if Jennie—Miss Fleming wants a thing, she always wants it bad, and generally gets it, too."
"Very well—I suppose I might as well surrender. Now pay strict attention, Miss Fleming.
"Well, some twenty years ago there died a New York merchant—a man of great wealth. His wife had died a year previous and to his son, a child of three or four, he left his entire property. At the time of his death, Mr. Hall was living in the country. He had retired from business a few years before and the people in the vicinity knew very little about him or his affairs. Therefore, when his brother-in-law, who was appointed executor under the will, disposed of the property and carried off the boy Richard, no one was enough interested to inquire what became of him.
"The brother-in-law, whose name was Hardy, had a son of about the same age as the boy Richard Hall, and from the day he left his country home young Hall was taught to call himself Hardy, while young Hardy, then an innocent party to the scheme, was taught to call himself Hall.
"In the envelope containing the will was a letter from Mr. Hall to his son which was not to be opened until he had attained the age of eighteen. This, of course, the unscrupulous executor opened, and found it to be a request from the father that the son on attaining his majority should fulfill a compact made with his former partner, who had removed to England relating to the marriage of——"
As may be readily imagined, Mr. Stafford was growing somewhat interested by this time. At this point he could restrain himself no longer.
"Mr. Martin!" he exclaimed. "Are you—but hang it! You can't be inventing! Where the deuce did you learn all this?"
Martin and Carden and the friends of the Stafford's stared at him in surprise. Martin, however, quickly noted that neither Mrs. Stafford nor Kate did, although both looked a little excited.
"The story is a short one, Mr. Stafford, and if you wait a minute or two longer you will know it all."