"
"The 'Clarion'? That is the paper which began the attack?" said
Harcourt.
"Yes, and it is only fair to tell you here that your son threw up his
place on it in consequence of its attack upon you."
There was perhaps the slightest possible shrinking in Harcourt's
eyelids--the one congenital likeness to his discarded son--but his
otherwise calm demeanor did not change. Grant went on more cheerfully:
"I've told you all I know. When I spoke of an unknown WORST, I did not
refer to any further accusation, but to whatever evidence they might
have fabricated or suborned to prove any one of them. It is only the
strength and fairness of the hands they hold that is uncertain.
Against that you have your certain uncontested possession, the peculiar
character and antecedents of this 'Lige Curtis, which would make his
evidence untrustworthy and even make it difficult for them to establish
his identity. I am told that his failure to contest your appropriation
of his property is explained by the fact of his being absent from the
country most of the time; but again, this would not account for their
silence until within the last six months, unless they have been waiting
for further evidence to establish it. But even then they must have known
that the time of recovery had passed. You are a practical man, Harcourt;
I needn't tell you therefore what your lawyer will probably tell you,
that practically, so far as your rights are concerned, you remain
as before these calumnies; that a cause of action unprosecuted or
in abeyance is practically no cause, and that it is not for you to
anticipate one.
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