"Is no clue given as to her real parentage?"
"None whatever. But I have also in my possession a sealed packet which I will presently give to Miss Lloyd--a packet addressed to her by Mr. Lloyd himself, but with instructions that it should not be given to her till after his death. Inside this packet I think it quite possible that Miss Lloyd may find all the particulars she would like to know."
"Does it not seem somewhat strange, Mr. Kelvin," said Lady Dudgeon, "that after bringing up Eleanor as his own child, Mr. Lloyd should have left her totally unprovided for?"
"I think there can be no doubt, madam, as to Mr. Lloyd's intentions. That he intended to provide handsomely for his adopted daughter, no one who knew him could doubt. But he was a very dilatory man in many ways, and he put off making his will from day to day and year to year, till at length death surprised him suddenly, and no time was given him to repair his fatal omission."
There was a pause. Dr. Whitaker whispered something in his patient's ear, but Kelvin only shook his head impatiently.
"You remarked just now, Mr. Kelvin," said Lady Dudgeon, "that there were some other circumstances connected with this remarkable case which you thought it desirable that we should become acquainted with."
"Precisely so, madam. It is for that purpose that I am here. The revelation I am about to make is a very painful one--very painful and humiliating to me. But I have made up my mind to make it, and I will not shrink from doing so whatever may be the consequences to myself."
Once more he paused and put the cordial to his lips. That he was deeply moved, all there could plainly see, but Olive Deane alone was in a position to guess the cause.
"This is the confession that I have to make," he began at last. "The news you have heard to-day respecting Miss Lloyd, has been in my possession not for a few days only, as you probably imagine, but for five long months."
"Oh, Mr. Kelvin!" cried Eleanor.