human
None.
gpt
Then--pardon me if I pain you--were you not on good terms with your father when he died?
human
Of course I was; what do you mean? If you had ever known my father you wouldn't have dreamt of asking such a--such a silly question; I don't wish to be rude, but you wouldn't. My father never said an angry word to me in the whole of his life.
gpt
But, in that case, to whom did he leave his money?
human
To me.
gpt
To you?
human
He left everything he had in the world to me absolutely; I don't know quite what it means, but I know that's what they said, absolutely.
gpt
Then now it's my turn not to understand you. Your father was an immensely wealthy man. If you are his heiress, how is it I have the honour, and happiness, of seeing you here, in receipt of a modest weekly salary?
human
Every one thought papa was rich; I did; I understood him to tell me himself that he was; but it seemed, after all, that he wasn't. Indeed, as soon as he was dead, some man said he owed him a great deal of money, for bills.
gpt
Bills!
human
I don't know what kind of bills they were; but I know they were bills of some kind, because I was told so; then they came and sold everything to get money to pay the bills, and I was left with nothing.
gpt
Miss Lindsay, Mr. Hooper has told you my name; it is Clifford--Frank Clifford. I believe I knew your father for many years, and am indebted to him for many kindnesses. Did he never mention my name to you?
human
Clifford? No, I don't remember his ever having done so.
gpt
I saw your portrait in his rooms yesterday, and when I saw you this morning I recognized you at once.
human
His rooms? What rooms?
gpt
His rooms in town.
human
I didn't know he had any; we couldn't find out that he had an address in town.
gpt
You couldn't find out that he had an address in town? I don't understand; there is something very strange here. Do you know a Mr. Nash?
human
Herbert Nash? He acted as my solicitor after my father was dead.
gpt
Your solicitor, or your father's?
human
Mine. He went through my father's papers with a friend, and it was he who discovered that he had left no money.
gpt
This is stranger and stranger. How many executors did your father appoint?
human
Executors?
gpt
How many executors did your father appoint in his will?
human
I never heard that he appointed any.
gpt
Then did you ever hear of a Mr. Morgan?
human
Morgan? Stephen Morgan? Stephen Morgan was our butler at Cloverlea.
gpt
Your butler! Miss Lindsay, would you mind describing your butler? She did it so minutely that he identified his visitor of yesterday beyond a doubt.
human
I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Morgan, Miss Lindsay; but he did not introduce himself as your father's butler. Would it be asking too much to ask you to describe your father?
gpt
I can do better than that. He never would be photographed by a professional, but I managed to snap him two or three times with my own camera; I have a print of the very last snapshot I took of him here. It's not much as a photograph, but it's not a bad likeness. She took an old-fashioned gold locket from the bosom of her dress, and, opening it, held it out for Mr. Clifford to see. On one side was the portrait of her father; on the other was the portrait of some one else.
human
That, she explained, rather lamely,
gpt
This, declared Mr. Clifford, looking at the likeness on the other side,
human
As who? That's my father!
gpt
Do you not know he had a business in town?
human
I did not know he had a business anywhere.
gpt
He had; he carried on that business under a pseudonym; I have always known him as Joseph Oldfield; for the first time yesterday I heard the name of Donald Lindsay. It seems to have been his wish that his commercial and his private lives should be wholly distinct, overlapping at no point; he appears to have succeeded in carrying out that wish almost too well.
human
How--how extraordinary; and yet I'm not surprised. That is what he has been trying to tell me all the time.
gpt
All what time?
human
He has been coming to me, night after night, in my dreams, always in such trouble; always trying so hard to tell me something; but he never could. Now I know what it was. If he comes again he'll understand that I know, and his trouble will have gone. You mustn't laugh at me; in my dreams his coming has been so real. Judging from their faces neither of her hearers was inclined for laughter. She turned to Mr. Clifford.
gpt
What was my father's business?
human
He was the proprietor of Peter Piper's Popular Pills, of which you have probably heard.
gpt
Why --her face was illumined by a smile--
human
So they are, Miss Lindsay; it is only ignorant people who doubt it. No one was in a better position to know than your father was, and he was their sole proprietor. If he left you all his property, then I am fortunate in being the first to tell you that, of my own knowledge, you are the owner of at least a million.
gpt
A million! Mr. Clifford! Then--then----