"When do you go back to town?"
"This afternoon, by the five o'clock express.
"You will leave me an address before you go, by means of which my cousin can communicate with you. You may expect to hear from me in a week at the latest."
Gerald pencilled down the address of a London friend, to which any letters for him might be sent. A few minutes later he took his leave.
This conversation it was that Mr. Piper thought it worth his while to take down in shorthand.
"My cousin Matthew's revenge shall be worthy of the name," said Olive to herself; as soon as she was alone. "Let this Eleanor Lloyd but engage herself to Pomeroy--let her marry him if she will--and on the day that Matthew tells her the secret of her birth, he can tell her also that the man to whom she has given her heart is but a sorry impostor, whose sole object in marrying her was to obtain possession of that money which is hers no longer. When that day comes, may I be there to see! Her proud beauty shall be humiliated to the dust."
When Gerald got back to London, he told Miss Bellamy everything that had happened. She quite concurred with him that it looked very much as if some strange conspiracy were afoot; but what the nature and objects of it might be they were altogether at a loss to imagine. In any case, it could do no harm for Gerald to retain his incognito for a little while longer.
A few days later, Gerald received by post a bank-note for fifty pounds, with Miss Deane's compliments. Mr. Kelvin had not yet got back home, she wrote, but would doubtless communicate with Mr. Pomeroy immediately after his return. Mr. Pomeroy pinned one note to the other, and having sealed them up in an envelope, he put them carefully away in his writing-desk.
A day or two later, Ambrose Murray called upon him at his rooms. "If you have nothing better to do," he said, "I wish you would give up the day to me. I want to visit my wife's grave. She lies among some of her own people in a little country churchyard, about a couple of miles from Welwyn. To me such a journey seems quite a formidable undertaking, and I want you, if you will, to go with me."
Gerald at once assented. They took the train from King's Cross to Welwyn, and then walked the remainder of the distance. When the churchyard was found, Gerald left Mr. Murray to himself for half an hour.