My ears, however, were terribly on the alert, whatever theirs were not. I was in an agony lest Moore should betray his whereabouts. My fears for him and myself had completely swamped my curiosity. So it will be believed that I had no wish to overhear what the newcomers were saying. I would have stopped my ears if I had dared to do so, though, ashamed as I was of our position, I do not think it struck me in any very acute way at the time that I was forced into playing the part of an eavesdropper. And I really do not believe that in my intense engrossment I would have noticed the words that fell from the brothers, but for a peculiar circumstance--that of the mention of our own name! One's own name, it is said, always catches one's attention more readily than any other word. "Fitzmaurice," I heard the younger brother say, as if repeating it thoughtfully, though not in any tone of surprise. "Oh yes, I agree with you, but--" "I know what you are going to say," interrupted the elder, "but don't say it. I sometimes almost regret having told even you my conviction that Ernest Fitzmaurice is the _only_ chance of my rehabilitation. I would not of course--I would die sooner than have had the girls" (afterwards the pathos of his thus speaking of the two poor faded little old maids, whom he could not disassociate from what then must have been a quarter of a century ago, struck me pitifully) "suspect my suspicion, my _conviction_, I may say. And nothing, Caryll, nothing would ever make me breathe it except to you." The cripple sighed a deep sigh. "I understand," he said, "and sympathise, especially as the chance of its being any use is so small, so very small." "That young fellow," resumed the elder Mr Grey, "is clever and well-meaning; acute in a remarkable degree, to have discovered that I _have_ a secret on the subject even from his father. But the discussion tortures me, Caryll--yes, tortures me. I _would_ not take any steps in that quarter. He must surely understand now that his persistence is useless, worse than useless." "I think he does," replied the other simply. "And after all," he repeated half dreamily, "it is the smallest of chances. He may be dead, or undiscoverable. If what we have been talking of were the case, _he_ would of course have the strongest motives for keeping out of the way." "I am not so sure of that," said the elder Mr Grey, after a moment's pause. "You forget that no one _dreamt_ of such a thing but myself. He kept perfectly clear. No, he may even be a prominent person by now, for all I know, in one of the colonies--I forget which he was bound for. But one thing is certain, the man who could do what I believe he did, and act with such fearful hypocrisy, must have slain his conscience long ago. There would be no use in tracing him, and even if there were--no! I do not think I could bring upon another, above all for Jessie's sake I could not, what I have gone through myself."