And so one uneventful year after another dragged out its little span, the partners meanwhile prospering in business, and never being other than the best of friends. At length, through the death of a relative, Mr. Travis succeeded to a considerable property and at once made up his mind to return to England. Alec, who for some years past had been pining for news from home, and who could not but remember that his father was getting well advanced in years, begged of his friend, on his arrival in the old country, to go to Mapleford and make certain inquiries _sub rosa_, and communicate the result to him. This Mr. Travis at once proceeded to do, writing Alec to the effect that his stepmother and his three half-brothers had all been some years dead, that a tablet to his, Alec’s memory had been put up in the church where so many of his progenitors were buried, that his son had been adopted by Sir Gilbert as the latter’s heir, and that his wife, under the designation of Mrs. Alexander Clare, was residing at the house known as Maylings, within a mile of the Chase. Alec was astounded. His child had been a girl, and he had still by him, carefully preserved, his wife’s heartless letter and the certificate of the infant’s death. The result of Mr. Travis’s letter was that, three weeks later, Alec landed at Liverpool. What followed is already known to the reader. Alec’s reason for not denouncing Luigi to Sir Gilbert at an earlier date was owing to his wife’s absence in Italy, of which he had learnt through certain inquiries made on his account by Martin Rigg. Before taking any positive steps in the affair he was desirous of obtaining some certain evidence as to how far Giovanna was implicated in the fraud, his intention being to seek an interview with her immediately upon her return. Rispani’s attempt on the strong room had brought matters to a climax a little sooner than he had anticipated.