He had come to Cornwall in pursuit of the last pieces of evidence for his family tree, and some local busybody had told him that I was versed in Cornish antiquities and heraldry.

That piece of information had brought him to me.

He begged for my assistance--my valuable assistance--in elucidating the last scraps of his genealogy from the graves of the past.
"I could have cut him short by laughing aloud--though not in mirth.

I had regained my self-command, for I saw that he had not the slightest suspicion to whom he was talking.

That in itself was not surprising.