His Grace — page 235: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HIS GRACE. 229 than to the duke. From information which had come to my ears at the time, I was inclined to take that view, but I was not then, as I am now, in possession of irrefragable proofs wherewith to support it. Con- sequently, when you assumed an indignant attitude (for which, I assure you, I did not hold you in the least to blame), I felt that I was in honor bound to with- draw what you stigmatized as offensive insinuations. I am otherwise situated to-day, since I have before me a document, written and signed by my late Uncle Charles, which places my suspicions beyond all reach of con- tradiction. JI am unwilling to cause you any unneces- sary pain; still when a fact has to be stated, it is per- haps less cruel to state it without ambiguity than to beat about the bush. In plain words, then, your father was a forger. He forged his brother’s name to a check for a considerable amount; he was detected and he was pardoned. That is to say that the duke pardoned him in so far as to pay the money and to make him an annual allowance until his marriage with a lady of large private means rendered an allowance superfluous. He declined, however, to see or speak to him again, and, as you are aware, he did not choose to run the risk of nominating a forger’s son as his heir. The late duke was a singularly just and clear-headed man. He was also, in my poor judgment, singularly generous. The promise of secrecy which he gave to his brother was never violated by him, I am persuaded, either in word or in implication. “You may ask why, under these circumstances, I should write to you with the evident idea of breaking an engagement which I may be said to have in some sort inherited. The question is a reasonable one, and e¢om l = \ EbDoOOo cS (El) im