'Are you suggesting, Mr. Howarth, that we don't know our business, or that I don't know mine? That is the late Marquis; the present Marquis is here.' He motioned with one hand towards the bed, with the other towards Reggie. To Reggie he addressed himself. 'I beg, my lord, to offer you my congratulations. I will not disguise from you that I am aware that this is an occasion on which you are entitled to receive them. We all know that your late brother was not all that he ought to be, and that he has been to you the occasion of great, long-continued, and undeserved anxiety. That burden has now been happily removed. I am sure that in the future your noble house will be worthily represented.' 'Thank you. I hope you're right.' After all, Hancock was a prosy old fool. 'Is there anything else I can do for you, or arrange before I go? Dr. White has kindly promised to see that the late Marquis receives all proper attention.' 'Much obliged; but Mr. Howarth will see to everything.' 'I will see to the funeral.' This was Foster. 'Well, Mr. Howarth has undertaken----' 'Quite right, Reggie, I will see to everything--including the funeral, Mr. Foster. We don't propose to trouble you more than we can help.' Mr. Foster made a few remarks to Reggie which were also meant for me. 'I trust, my lord, that my attitude towards you in the past will not be misconstrued. As I did what I held to be my duty towards your brother, so I will observe equal fidelity towards you. If it should be happily shown--which I do not doubt it will be--that you are now the Marquis and in possession of the family estates, I will study your interests with the same honesty of purpose with which I studied his.' 'Very good of you, Foster. You shall hear from me in due course.' Reggie turned on his heel; and the great, and hitherto supreme, Mr. Foster, was snubbed. It was injudicious, perhaps, but we both of us owed him a good deal more than a snubbing. At last Reggie and I were alone. The first thing he said, directly their backs were turned, showed what was in his mind. 'It would be awkward if what that brute Foster keeps hinting at was true, and Twickenham was married.' 'No fear of that. He wasn't. Twickenham wasn't a marrying man.' 'Let's hope it. A wife and family of his would be a crowning mercy.' 'There's not the slightest fear of anything of the kind. I'm sure of it. It's Foster's cue to make you fidgety. Don't you let him have the satisfaction of thinking that he even retains the power of making himself disagreeable.' Reggie was observing the silent figure. 'He does look a bad lot, even now.' 'He was.' 'Vi was quite right; he died as he had lived. I believed that if he had had a few minutes longer he would have robbed me of all he could.' 'I shouldn't be surprised; the ruling passion strong in death.' Presently he departed. I was alone with the man in the bed.