"I cannot say. She told me nothing of her history, but from a word or two which she let slip I believe she must have been in the United States. Why she went there from San Remo, or for what reason, I cannot say. She came here to see me--we had an interview in this very room--to demand money." "What threat did she make?" "That she would tell where the marriage took place," "And you bribed her to keep silence?" Derrington winced at the scorn in his grandson's voice and took a turn up and down the room. "I am no saint, I admit," he said, "and at the time, George, I did not know that you would turn out such a fine fellow. I dreaded a scandal, and there was your uncle to be considered. I had made him my heir." "And what about me, sir? Were the sins of my father to be placed on my shoulders?" "I have admitted that I was in the wrong," said Derrington, impatiently, "spare me further sermons." "I beg your pardon," said George, quietly. "But please touch as lightly as possible on these matters. We will admit that you acted according to your lights." "False lights," said his grandfather, sadly. "However, we need speak no more on that particular point. Mrs. Jersey said that she knew where the marriage was celebrated, adding that if I did not give her an annuity she would go to Lockwood and help him to prove that you were my legitimate grandson and heir." "Did she say if the marriage was celebrated in England or abroad?" "No, sir; Mrs. Jersey was a remarkably clever woman, and if my son Percy had married her she would have made a man of him." "Then she really was in love with my father?" "Very deeply in love--as she told me herself. But she did not regard his memory with such veneration as to desire to aid his son. She was content that you should lose your rights, provided that I paid her an annuity. I tried in vain to learn from her where the marriage had been celebrated. She refused to open her mouth, so I allowed her an annuity of five hundred a year----" "That was a large sum," interposed George. Derrington shrugged his shoulders. "Much larger than I could afford, my good sir," he said, "but Mrs. Jersey dictated her own terms. I arranged that the money should be paid through my lawyers, and she vanished." "Where to?" "I can't say. She might have gone to rejoin Mr. Jersey if there ever was such a person. She sent a messenger regularly to the office of my lawyers for the money, but did not trouble me in any way. Her next appearance was shortly after the death of your grandfather." "What did she want this time?" "To set up a boarding-house in Amelia Square. She said that her life was lonely--a remark which made me think Mr. Jersey was a myth--and that she wanted company. I expect she learned in some way that I was buying old Lockwood's house." "Why did you buy it?"