"That just brings me to my last question," said Sir Sidney, "and here is your sister driving into the court; so tell me why it was you did not rather give the money into my hands, or William's, or Blanche's, or any one's rather than risk it in such a situation?"
Beauchamp laughed, and turning toward Miss Delaware, who was just then re-entering the room, he replied, "Really, Sir Sidney, I must refuse to plead--you must ask Blanche."
"Well then, you tell me, my love," continued the baronet, turning to his daughter, "What could your cousin's reason be for putting the money, that has caused us so much anxiety, into William's room that night, rather than giving it to me or you, as it seems he knew that William was out?"
Beauchamp and Captain Delaware both smiled, and Blanche blushed deeply, but was silent.
"So, so!" said Sir Sidney. "Is it so? Well, well, I stop my questions there--William, run out and welcome your fair cousin! Blanche, give me your hand--there, Henry, take her; and may she ever be to you as dear, as gentle, as good, and as beloved a wife, as her mother was to me."
There was but little more now to be explained; though Sir Sidney, in reward for the young earl's patience under cross-examination, took great pains to make him understand how his son William had found means, through their poor pensioner, widow Harrison herself, to communicate to the family his safe arrival in France, and a plan for their meeting, which had been immediately adopted--how they had skillfully contrived to conceal their route--and how their good old friend Arnoux had prevailed upon them to pause at Poligny, instead of going on to Sicily, as they had at first intended.
From widow Harrison, too, to whose faith and gratitude they could trust, and to whom alone their place of residence had been communicated, they had learned by letter many of Beauchamp's efforts in their favor, as well as their success and the ultimate result of the trial; but still, although, they had heard so much, there was yet matter enough left to be told on both sides, to furnish forth many a story for the bright fireside.
Nothing more remains for the writer, to whom their own lips kindly furnished the materials for composing this book, than to add that a very few months afterward, at the chapel of the British Embassador at Paris, Henry, Earl of Ashborough, was married to Blanche, only daughter of Sir Sidney Delaware; and that the body of poor Walter Harrison sleeps by the side of the Lake of Geneva.
Nevertheless, it behoves us to record one serious dispute which took place between the young Earl of Ashborough and Sir Sidney Delaware, which was occasioned by the baronet insisting that his noble son-in-law should take a mortgage upon the Emberton estate for the amount of the twenty-five thousand pounds advanced by him to pay off the former annuity.
On the other hand, however, it appeared that the late earl had been, at the moment of his death, in the prosecution of a suit to prove that the annuity had not been legally paid off. It was true, also, that Beauchamp had received the five-and-twenty thousand pounds back again from Mr. Tims, and that the annuity had been paid up to the very last day of the late earl's life. Beauchamp, therefore, contended that he had no right whatever to demand or accept any mortgage, as the money had returned to his own possession, and the annuity must be considered to have lapsed with the life of his uncle.