The duke bit his lip and gazed stolidly at the speaker.
"You are not obliged to believe me," said the latter jauntily; "only you wanted to know my business in Maxfield, and I have told you.

I don't say I'm the heir, for I understand my father was good enough to cut me out of every penny of his estate.

And as for being a paragon of virtue, or the opposite, that's my affair and no one else's--eh, your grace ?" His Grace was much disturbed.

He had once seen young Roger Ingleton, at that time a mere boy, but retained no distinct memory of him.

At the time of the quarrel between father and son he had been abroad, and the news of the lad's death had been formally communicated as a matter beyond question.