Everard’s most pressing object was to secure a private interview with Mr. John Clare—as he was henceforward to be known to the world, although to his father he would never be anything but Alec. Not till he should have recounted to the latter the history of the ring and put it into his hands, would he go in search of Ethel and surprise her by his unexpected return.
Presently he found John alone in the library, hunting up some of the favourite authors of his youth, from whom he felt that he had been too long parted. Sir Gilbert was closeted with one of his tenants in the study.
John Clare greeted Everard with a smile and a cordial grip of the hand. The liking he had conceived for him during the few hours they had spent together in Liverpool had not been, in any degree lessened by what he had heard about him since, both from his father and Lady Pell.
“I thought you were about to give yourself a holiday,” he said, “and that we need not look to see you at the Chase for some days to come.” He had already had his grizzled beard and heavy moustache carefully trimmed, and certainly he presented a much more civilised appearance than before.
“I was able to finish the business which took me to London in much less time than I expected,” replied Everard. “The affair, however, has taken a turn wholly surprising and unexpected—one that seems to bring you, Mr. Clare, into connection with it, although as to the mode in which the connection in question originated I must confess that I am entirely in the dark.”
“You excite my curiosity, Lisle. I hope you will not refuse to gratify it.”
“Is there any place where we can secure half-an-hour to ourselves without fear of interruption?”
“Perhaps we had better go upstairs to my own room. No one will intrude upon us there.”
“May I take the liberty of asking whether you have ever seen this ring before?” said Everard as soon as the two were seated opposite each other in John’s dressing-room.
John took the ring and looked at it for a moment or two, as one in doubt. Then all at once a flash of recognition leapt into his eyes and every nerve in his body responded with a thrill. “Yes, I have seen this ring before—many years ago,” he said slowly. “Have you any objection to telling me by what strange chance it came into your possession?”