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"Surely," replied Woodlesford, "surely you can't expect a man who has been away from England all that time to remember everything!" "I should have expected Lord Marketstoke to have gone straight to the family solicitors, anyway," retorted Mr. Pawle. "Obvious thing to do if his story is a true one."
"Well, gentlemen," he said, when they had all gathered about his desk. "Lord Ellingham has informed me of what passed between you and himself at his house yesterday. In plain language, the client whom you represent claims to be the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared so completely many years ago, and therefore the rightful Earl of Ellingham.
I replied that I had at the time when application was made to the courts for leave to presume Lord Marketstoke's death. "Thereupon, pledging me to secrecy for the time being, Ashton went on to tell me that Lord Marketstoke was well known to him and that he alone knew all the facts of the matter, though a certain amount of them was known to another man, now living in London.
"In my profession," he answered, "we hear a great deal more of romance than most folk could imagine. Now, here's a man who returns to this country from a long residence in Australia. The first thing he does, after getting settled down in London, is to visit Marketstoke. Why Marketstoke? Marketstoke is an obscure place there are at least five or six towns in this very county that are better known.
According to what she told us just now, her father was married in Australia, and she herself was born there. There must be documentary proof of that." "Her father was probably married under his assumed name of Wickham," observed Mr. Carless. "You'll have to prove that Wickham and Lord Marketstoke were identical were one and the same person.
Although Marketstoke went to and lived in Australia under the name of Wickham, he had taken good care to get married in his own proper name, and there, amongst the documents, was the marriage certificate, in which he was correctly described. Further, his daughter had been correctly designated in the register of her birth; there was a copy, properly attested, of the entry." Mr.
"That is to say, you are really or you claim to be really the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared from England some thirty-five years ago, and you have now returned, though you are legally presumed to be dead, to assert your rights to titles and estates? You absolutely claim to be the ninth Earl of Ellingham?" "Yes!" "Where have you been during the last thirty-five years?" "In Australia."
That particular Countess of Ellingham would, of course, be the grandmother of the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared. Did he think of her maiden name, Wickham, when he wanted a new one for himself? Possibly! And when he married, and had a daughter, did he think of the Christian name so popular with his own womenfolk of previous generations, and call his daughter Avice?
And are Marketstoke and Wickham and Ashton all one and the same man?" "Upon my word, it's a strange muddle!" exclaimed Viner. "Nothing as yet to what it will be," remarked Mr. Pawle sententiously. "Come on I'm famishing. Let's lunch and then we'll go back to town." Another surprise awaited them when they walked into Mr. Pawle's office in Bedford Row at four o'clock that afternoon.
"Well although he was passing under the name of Cave, he was, in strict reality, the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared from England many years ago, who was never heard of again, and whose death had been presumed. He was, therefore, the rightful Earl of Ellingham, and as such entitled to the estates. He proceeded to tell Methley and Woodlesford his adventures.
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