Lord Skene never forgave me for that stand made in my own rights, but persisted to the end in regarding me as an impostor who had got even something better than his deserts. His ward coming of age soon after the trial, and persisting no less obstinately in her attachment to a rascal, he washed his hands of her and committed us both to the devil. The death of his mother-in-law, I am satisfied to think, caused him some retributive pangs; for, out of pocket as he was by the action, he could not afford to ignore her substantial leavings, or fail to suffer the social penalties entailed thereby through his obligation to admit his wife’s relationship with the horrible old miser. After Mother Carey’s demise, bonds, scrip, and securities to a handsome tune were discovered hidden about her premises, besides a considerable amount of property in hard, but dirty, cash. I hope his lordship enjoyed handling it. But I bear him no grudge. Old kindly memories of him predominate in my mind. From facts subsequently unearthed by Mr Shapter, it was believed that Mr Mark Dalston had originally purposed the infanticide, through the co-operation of his friend, Dr Blague, of the teller of this narrative, and that it was nothing more that the accidental interposition of Mother Carey which had suggested to him the compromise which, though after a long interval, was to bring about his undoing. If he had been imbued with only a little less confidence in his own managing villainy, he might have been a respected citizen at this day, and my story had never been written. The trial had at least one sequel satisfying to justice. It led--largely through Johnny’s instrumentality--to an inquiry into the circumstances of Geoletti’s conviction (an inquiry only less notable than the one to which it was supernumerary), with the result that the victim was granted a free pardon, together with some pecuniary compensation nicely adapted to his deserts at the time of his arrest. It was sufficient, however, to his expectations; and returning with the sum to his native land, he was enabled to realise the desire of his heart in the purchase of an auberge in the Aosta Valley, where in after days I called upon him, in company with my wife, and found him a quiet prosperous man, not speaking much, but possessed with an insatiable craving to make up for past abstinences from tobacco and wine.