The financier’s deep voice came back through the telephone. “To-morrow, certainly, any time you please, preferably in the morning. But, if convenient to you, come round at once. Mrs. Morrice is away; I am here alone.”
Lane was rather glad to hear it. He answered that he would come at once. What he was about to tell Morrice was bound to produce a violent explosion, but it would not occur while he was in the house.
A few moments later the detective stood in the financier’s private room, in a mood almost as serious as that of Morrice himself.
CHAPTER XXI
ROSABELLE HAS A GRIEVANCE
“You have something of importance to communicate to me, Mr. Lane,” were Morrice’s first words. “Take a seat, please.”
“Something of the greatest importance, and also, I am very sorry to say, of a most unpleasant nature. You must be prepared to receive a great shock, Mr. Morrice.”
A grim smile fleeted across the financier’s gloomy countenance. He had already received a very startling shock, in time he would get inured to them.
“It concerns a young man named Archibald Brookes who, I understand, is a frequent visitor at your house, also a member of your family, the alleged nephew of your wife and also of Sir George Clayton-Brookes, supposed to be her brother-in-law by the marriage of his brother Archibald, who died in Australia, to her sister.”
At the two ominous words “alleged” and “supposed,” Morrice looked keenly at his visitor, but he made no comment. He knew this was a man who did not speak at random, who carefully weighed his utterances. What was he going to hear now? Well, nothing would surprise him after what he had already discovered for himself. Duplicity came naturally to some temperaments.
The detective went on in his calm, even voice. “It is one of the disagreeable duties of our profession to make unpleasant disclosures. I made certain discoveries after taking up this case for Mr. Richard Croxton which up to the present I have withheld from you, out of consideration for your feelings. The time is come when you ought to know the truth. Sir George’s family consisted of himself and two brothers, there were no sisters. Both of these brothers died unmarried. Therefore Sir George can have no nephew. Mrs. Morrice was the only child of a not very successful artist; her mother lost her life in giving her birth. Therefore the same remark applies to her, young Archibald Brookes is no more her nephew than he is Sir George’s. And, of course, it follows that there was no marriage between her sister and his brother.”