“But how?  When?  Where?”

“That is for you to settle.  Watch him, stick to him, dog his footsteps, follow him wherever he goes.  Some day he must give you a chance.”

“Leave it to me.  The moment will come when I shall sheathe my knife in his heart.”

“I think I can trust you.  Only do it well, and never let me see him again.”

CHAPTER XXII.

MR. HOBSON CALLS.

The Arcadia went direct from Gibraltar to Southampton, where Mrs. Wilders left it and returned to London.

It was necessary for her to review her position and look things in the face.  Her circumstances were undoubtedly straitened since her husband’s death.  She had her pension as the widow of a general officer—­but this was a mere pittance at best—­and the interest of the small private fortune settled, at the time of the marriage, on her and her children, should she have any.  Her income from both these sources amounted to barely L300 a year—­far too meagre an amount according to her present ideas, burdened as she was, moreover, with the care and education of a child.

But how was she to increase it?  The reversion of the great Wilders estates still eluded her grasp; they might never come her way, whatever lengths she might go to secure them.

“Lord Essendine ought to do something for me,” she told herself, as soon as she was settled in town.  “It was not fair to keep the existence of this hateful young man secret; my boy suffers by it, poor little orphan!  Surely I can make a good case of this to his lordship; and, after all, the child comes next.”

She wrote accordingly to the family lawyers, Messrs. Burt and Benham, asking for an interview, and within a day or two saw the senior partner, Mr. Burt.

He was blandly sympathetic, but distant.

“Allow me to offer my deep condolence, madam; but as this is, I presume, a business visit, may I ask—­”

“I am left in great distress.  I wish to appeal to Lord Essendine.”

“On what grounds?”

“My infant son is the next heir.”

“Nay; surely you know—­there is another before him?”

“Before my boy!  Who?  What can you mean?  Impossible!  I have never heard a syllable of this.  I shall contest it.”

It suited her to deny all knowledge, thinking it strengthened her position.

“That would be quite useless.  The claims of the next heir are perfectly sound.”

“It is sheer robbery!  It is scandalous, outrageous!  I will go and see Lord Essendine myself.”

“Pardon me, madam; I fear that is out of the question.  He is in Scotland, living in retirement.  Lady Essendine’s health has failed greatly under recent afflictions.”

“He must and shall know how I am situated.”

“You may trust me to tell him, madam, at once; and, although I have no right to pledge his lordship, I think I can safely say that he will meet you in a liberal spirit.”