He was my grandfather's partner in the great firm of Touchwood, Scrogie, and Co .-- Let me tell you, there is as good inheritance in house as in field--a man's partners are his fathers and brothers, and a head clerk may be likened to a kind of first cousin." "I meant no offence whatever, Mr.Touchwood Scrogie." "Scrogie Touchwood, if you please," said the senior; "the scrog branch first, for it must become rotten ere it become touchwood--ha, ha, ha!--you take me." "A singular old fellow this," said Mowbray to himself, "and speaks in all the dignity of dollars; but I will be civil to him, till I can see what he is driving at .-- You are facetious, Mr.Touchwood," he proceeded aloud.

"I was only going to say, that although you set no value upon your connexion with my family, yet I cannot forget that such a circumstance exists; and therefore I bid you heartily welcome to Shaws-Castle." "Thank ye, thank ye, Mr.Mowbray--I knew you would see the thing right.
To tell you the truth, I should not have cared much to come a-begging for your acquaintance and cousinship, and so forth; but that I thought you would be more tractable in your adversity, than was your father in his prosperity." "Did you know my father, sir ?" said Mowbray.
"Ay, ay--I came once down here, and was introduced to him--saw your sister and you when you were children--had thoughts of making my will then, and should have clapped you both in before I set out to double Cape Horn.

But, gad, I wish my poor father had seen the reception I got! I did not let the old gentleman, Mr.Mowbray of St.Ronan's that was then, smoke my money-bags--that might have made him more tractable--not but that we went on indifferent well for a day or two, till I got a hint that my room was wanted, for that the Duke of Devil-knows-what was expected, and my bed was to serve his valet-de-chambre.--'Oh, damn all gentle cousins!' said I, and off I set on the pad round the world again, and thought no more of the Mowbrays till a year or so ago." "And, pray, what recalled us to your recollection ?" "Why," said Touchwood, "I was settled for some time at Smyrna, (for I turn the penny go where I will--I have done a little business even since I came here;)--but being at Smyrna as I said, I became acquainted with Francis Tyrrel." "The natural brother of Lord Etherington," said Mowbray.
"Ay, so called," answered Touchwood; "but by and by he is more likely to prove the Earl of Etherington himself, and t'other fine fellow the bastard." "The devil he is!--You surprise me, Mr.Touchwood." "I thought I should--I thought I should--Faith, I am sometimes surprised myself at the turn things take in this world.

But the thing is not the less certain--the proofs are lying in the strong chest of our house at London, deposited there by the old Earl, who repented of his roguery to Miss Martigny long before he died, but had not courage enough to do his legitimate son justice till the sexton had housed him." "Good Heaven, sir!" said Mowbray; "and did you know all this while, that I was about to bestow the only sister of my house upon an impostor ?" "What was my business with that, Mr.Mowbray ?" replied Touchwood; "you would have been very angry had any one suspected you of not being sharp enough to look out for yourself and your sister both.

Besides, Lord Etherington, bad enough as he may be in other respects, was, till very lately, no impostor, or an innocent one, for he only occupied the situation in which his father had placed him.