"And am, your servant to command, "SHADRACH HIGGS.
'"I send this by a trusty messenger, who will return it to me if you are not to be found."'
'Stop,' said the squire; 'let us begin at the beginning. What makes him call you Vandercroft?'
'It is not the first name,' said the stranger, 'that has been gratuitously assigned to me, over and above that with which my parents honoured me.'
'Then your name is not Vandercroft?' said Dr. Cruden.
'I did not; Bloodworth bestowed it on me through a natural misconstruction of his, and I did not think it worth while to undeceive him.'
'Capital!' said the squire. 'I'll wager anything that you are not Jobson.'
'According to you and Biddy Sparks I am.'
'According to me! why, you told me it was so.'
'Why,' said the squire, starting from his seat, 'don't you remember that morning?'--
'Perfectly,' interrupted the stranger,--'when you addressed me as Mr. Jobson.'
'A man hasn't lived to grey hairs,' said the stranger, with a smile, pointing to the changing colour of his own, 'without knowing the worth of a name, as you observed just now; and as you were satisfied with Jobson, it quite contented me.'
'Like many others, Biddy is satisfied with slight evidence; she saw "Matthew Jobson" on the brass plate of a portmanteau which by an accident I had exchanged for my own in travelling, and she settled the matter at once without question.'
Mr. Brimble, holding the miniature in his hand, looked alternately at it and the stranger, while Dr. Cruden asked, 'Will you favour us with your true name?'
The stranger looked at the squire and replied, 'I think my uncle knows it--Eustace De la Mark.'
'I _did_ know it,' said the squire, almost breathless; 'I _did_ know it--I was sure of it; even while I called him Jobson I felt drawn to him. My dear boy, what right have you with grey hairs?' he said, affectionately grasping both his hands; 'and why have you served us in this way?'
'I have a very long story to tell,' said Eustace--no longer 'the stranger'--after the first agitation had passed; 'but it is of the utmost importance, remember, that I should not be known to any but yourselves for the present. My intention was to remain altogether concealed for some time yet; but I could not withstand it,' he said, again grasping his uncle's hand.