"May we come in?" asked Harry, looking up eagerly towards Mabel. For an instant he hesitated, then sprang up the steps past the old lady. Madam Everard detained Mr. Kyffin and the captain for some minutes by making inquiries and receiving answers.
"Come in, come in," at length she answered. "Little did I expect to receive such joyful intelligence. Accept my gratitude, Captain Rochard, on my own account, and doubly thankful I am that by your means my dear nephew and his daughter will recover their rights."
A minute afterwards Mary was seen tripping down the street to the news-room to summon the captain. He had gone there to read the account just received of Lord Duncan's great victory at Camperdown.
"Oh, sir!" exclaimed Mary, as she saw the captain, "it is happy news, sir, happy news, better news than that about the battle. The French captain has come back and brought two old country people with him, and Madam Everard says we shall all get back to Stanmore."
Mr. Wallace was in the room at the time, and the captain, scarcely crediting the news, begged the lawyer to accompany him home.
"The evidence is complete," observed Mr. Wallace, after he had looked over the document brought by Captain Rochard, and by the help of that gentleman had examined the old French people. "We can go with perfect confidence of victory into a court of law, should Mr. Sleech venture to oppose the claims of Captain Everard."
"I trust that everything may be done in a peaceable way," observed Madam Everard. "I cannot pretend to have any regard for that unhappy man, Mr. Sleech, though his children are, it must be owned, my nephews and nieces. I trust, however, that he will yield without opposition."
Mr. Wallace promised to manage matters in as gentle a way as possible, and that no time might be lost, he set out forthwith for Stanmore. Paul Gauntlett, who very soon heard what was taking place, begged to accompany him.
"No, no," said the lawyer. "You, my friend, are a man of war. We will call you in if it is necessary to proceed by ejectment, but at present I hope the enemy will capitulate without an assault."
At that moment Dr. Jessop looked in to pay a professional visit to Mabel.
"I think she scarcely requires your services, doctor," observed Madam Everard; "but if you, as a friend of the family, will accompany Mr. Wallace, perhaps you may be able to aid him in his delicate and somewhat painful mission."