living proof of my guilt and folly." Enclosed were certificates of his marriage, and of the birth and death of his infant legitimate son. Whether the late Lord Teviot, a selfish, careless man, ever read this letter was doubtful. Certainly he never acted on it; and Harry Lorimer grew up ignorant of most of the details of his father's history. Whether he really believed himself to be what he now asserted, or merely made use of the papers he had found on his aunt's death, as a good speculation, wherewith to extract a sum of money from Lord Teviot, is a mystery that charity may leave unravelled. When his lawyer informed him that the papers which had been found did not "leave him a leg to stand on," he observed that he was not surprised; that he had begun life on one leg only, and was only astonished that he had stood so well and so long on it.
"At all events," he added, "I have had my fun for my money, and have met with more civility during the last month than during the thirty preceding years of my existence. It is a shabby world to live in, but I do not mean to let the worshippers of the rising sun who took me up drop me again easily. So I shall go down to Portsdown. I suppose Teviot is not the sort of fellow to come down handsomely with a few thousands because I withdraw my claims. Is he?"
The lawyer said he rather thought not; and there ended Harry Lorimer's dream of grandeur. It had been short and vague, but, as he said, "rather good fun while it lasted; and he thought it would enable him to act Sly the tinker with considerable verve if Lady Portmore felt inclined to get up 'The Taming of the Shrew.'"
