 checking himself in that abruptness, he only
inquired after Mrs. Bulstrode, and her satisfaction with the picture bought for
her.
    »Thank you, she is quite satisfied; she has gone out with her daughters this
evening. I begged you to come, Mr. Ladislaw, because I have a communication of a
very private - indeed, I will say, of a sacredly confidential nature, which I
desire to make to you. Nothing, I daresay, has been farther from your thoughts
than that there had been important ties in the past which could connect your
history with mine.«
    Will felt something like an electric shock. He was already in a state of
keen sensitiveness and hardly allayed agitation on the subject of ties in the
past, and his presentiments were not agreeable. It seemed like the fluctuations
of a dream - as if the action begun by that loud bloated stranger were being
carried on by this pale-eyed sickly-looking piece of respectability, whose
subdued tone and glib formality of speech were at this moment almost as
repulsive to him as their remembered contrast. He answered, with a marked change
of colour -
    »No, indeed, nothing.«
    »You see before you, Mr. Ladislaw, a man who is deeply stricken. But for the
urgency of conscience and the knowledge that I am before the bar of One who
seeth not as man seeth, I should be under no compulsion to make the disclosure
which has been my object in asking you to come here to-night. So far as human
laws go, you have no claim on me whatever.«
    Will was even more uncomfortable than wondering. Mr. Bulstrode had paused,
leaning his head on his hand, and looking at the floor. But he now fixed his
examining glance on Will and said -
    »I am told that your mother's name was Sarah Dunkirk, and that she ran away
from her friends to go on the stage. Also, that your father was at one time much
emaciated by illness. May I ask if you can confirm these statements?«
    »Yes, they are all true,« said Will, struck with the order in which an
inquiry had come, that might have been expected to be preliminary to the
banker's previous hints. But Mr. Bulstrode had to-night followed the order of
his emotions; he entertained no doubt that the opportunity for restitution had
come, and he had an overpowering impulse towards the penitential expression by
which he was deprecating chastisement.
    »Do you know any particulars of your mother's family?« he continued.
    »
