Kilpatrick stared at him like one distraught, breathing heavily, and grasping the side-pieces of his armchair with twitching fingers. ‘’Tis sooth I’m tellin’ ye,’ returned Peebles. ‘Blake was in holy orders. He’d been deprived of his cure and he performed the ceremony under a false name, but he’d ne’er been disfrocked. Desmond is your lawfully begotten son--your heir!’ Kilpatrick’s reception of this astounding news fairly astonished the old man. After the first dumfoundering effect of the communication had passed, Kilpatrick sprang from his chair, his face flushed, his eyes glittering. ‘Is it true? Is it true?’ ‘True as death!’ responded Peebles. ‘Where is he?’ cried the old man. ‘For God’s sake, Peebles, bring him here! Let me see him!’ His face darkened with a sudden expression of doubt. ‘Peebles,’ he cried brokenly; ‘you’re not playing with me? You’re not deceiving me? I’ve been a good master to you these years past; you couldn’t--you wouldn’t----’ ‘God forbid!’ said Peebles. ‘It’s gospel truth.’ ‘But,’ asked Kilpatrick, ‘why has Blake been silent all these years?’ ‘Because,’ said Peebles, ‘Richard Conseltine has made it worth his while.’ ‘By Heaven!’ cried the old lord, ‘I’ll break every bone in Dick’s body! Peebles, you don’t know what I’ve suffered all these years. Even from you I’ve hidden my miseries. I’ve looked at Desmond, standing side by side with that ugly cub of Dick’s, and ground my teeth to think that I couldn’t leave the title to him. God bless you, Peebles--God bless you for the news! ‘Fore Gad! I shall go mad with joy. Peebles, I’ll double your wages if you’ll get the boy here in an hour from now. What are you standing glowering there for? Run, you old rascal, run, and bring Desmond to me! My eyes are hungry for him! I’ll acknowledge him before the world! He shall marry Dulcie before the week’s out, and I’ll live to nurse my grandson yet! Dick’s face will be a sight to see when he learns that I know this.’ Peebles did not move. He was revolving in his mind the wisdom of at once breaking to Kilpatrick the news that the wife he deemed dead was living. ‘Desmond shall do that,’ he said to himself. ‘Ay, Desmond shall do that. ’Twill come better from him. My lord’s heart will be softened. ’Twill be less of a shock than if _I_ told him. Ay, ay,’ he said aloud, as Kilpatrick impatiently bade him begone and fetch Desmond. ‘He shall be here inside an hour, my lord.’ ‘God bless you, old friend,’ said his lordship, shaking hands with him. ‘You’re a pragmatical old Puritan, but you’ve taken ten years off my age to-day.’ Peebles descended to the pantry, where he found Blake still in intimate converse with the whisky bottle. ‘Mr. Blake, would ye do my lord and me a service?’ ‘By my troth, I will, then,’ said Blake. Peebles called a groom, and bade him prepare a horse and carriage.