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'
I think I rarely heard a more obscure or a more promising
annunciation,' the other remarked. 'But what is It?'
'
You remember my predecessor's, old Peter M'Brair's business?'
I remember him acutely; he could not look at me without a pang of
'
reprobation, and he could not feel the pang without betraying it.
He was to me a man of a great historical interest, but the interest
was not returned.'
'Ah well, we go beyond him,' said Mr. Thomson. 'I daresay old
Peter knew as little about this as I do. You see, I succeeded to a
prodigious accumulation of old law-papers and old tin boxes, some
of them of Peter's hoarding, some of his father's, John, first of
the dynasty, a great man in his day. Among other collections were
all the papers of the Durrisdeers.'
'The Durrisdeers!' cried I. 'My dear fellow, these may be of the
greatest interest. One of them was out in the '45; one had some
strange passages with the devil--you will find a note of it in
Law's Memorials, I think; and there was an unexplained tragedy, I
know not what, much later, about a hundred years ago--'
'More than a hundred years ago,' said Mr. Thomson. 'In 1783.'
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