He paused as if overcome by his emotion; then continued in trembling voice: 

“We have been slaves all these years, trembling and shrinking under a villain’s nod and frown.  I’ve sold myself to a demon, who, in consideration of my services—­of my body and soul—­promised to keep his talons from my poor Lucy.  He discovered her mistake; and he threatened to let the whole world know, to tell you all, if I did not bind myself to do his villainous work.  I have done it for years.  I have endured shame and agony unspeakable, that my darling’s secret might be safe.  I have been his tool and his scapegoat.  I, an old man, on my way to the grave, have earned—­and rightly earned—­the names of usurer and thief.  All this I have done and suffered that he should never blight my child’s happiness by his presence.  He has broken the contract.  He came down here that night you went to Richmond, and, with his fiendish ways and threats, nearly killed her.  Well, now his power has gone.  Thanks to your generosity, your forgiveness, Lucy is free, and I am free.  Now I take my turn, and for every tear he has wrung from my darling’s eyes, I will wring a groan from his black heart.”

John had listened to him with intense surprise.  He knew his father-in-law was in business in the City; but he did not know that the business of “Harker’s,” for which he had a great respect, had anything to do with moneylending.  Still he refrained from asking any questions; and seeing that Mr. Harker was practically exhausted by the excitement and the news, persuaded him to spend the remainder of the night with them, and travel back to town in the morning.

After reflection the old man agreed to this; and it was a very happy little party that met at the breakfast-table next day.

Mr. Harker, unable to sleep, had let his thoughts go back to Jessica; and in the silence of the night a picture had arisen before his eyes; a theatre in which a dark-eyed young girl was dancing, amidst a crowd of others.  In his delight at having a clue he cried aloud, “Ada Lester, at the Rockingham!” The more he thought of it the more sure he felt that this girl must be the daughter, or at least some connection, of the well-known actress.

On questioning Jessica, all the information he could obtain from her was that which she had given Adrien Leroy.  Johann Wilfer was the boundary of her existence.  Harker remembered the name as that of the man from whom he had bought the picture, and he also knew now that he it was who had been responsible for Lucy’s early sin.  But he was not to be shaken from his belief that in some way Jessica must be related to Ada Lester, and he asked the girl whether she would travel up to London with him, and trust herself to his care.

Jessica looked up into his lined face.

“Yes,” she said simply, “if you won’t give me back to Johann.”

Harker readily promised this, and, amid many smiles and wavings of hand from the assembled Ashford family, the two started on their way.