“Exactly; then came my quarrel with Captain M’Intyre, and my compelled departure from Fairport and its vicinity.”
“From love and from poetry—Miss Wardour and the Caledoniad?”
“Most true.”
“And since that time you have been occupied, I suppose, with plans for Sir Arthur’s relief?”
“Yes, sir; with the assistance of Captain Wardour at Edinburgh.”
“And Edie Ochiltree here—you see I know the whole story. But how came you by the treasure?”
“It was a quantity of plate which had belonged to my uncle, and was left in the custody of a person at Fairport. Some time before his death he had sent orders that it should be melted down. He perhaps did not wish me to see the Glenallan arms upon it.”
“Well, Major Neville—or let me say, Lovel, being the name in which I rather delight—you must, I believe, exchange both of your alias’s for the style and title of the Honourable William Geraldin, commonly called Lord Geraldin.”
The Antiquary then went through the strange and melancholy circumstances concerning his mother’s death.
“I have no doubt,” he said, “that your uncle wished the report to be believed, that the child of this unhappy marriage was no more—perhaps he might himself have an eye to the inheritance of his brother—he was then a gay wild young man—But of all intentions against your person, however much the evil conscience of Elspeth might lead her to inspect him from the agitation in which he appeared, Teresa’s story and your own fully acquit him. And now, my dear sir, let me have the pleasure of introducing a son to a father.”