If he could get a large sum to settle the case, he could make Peggy give him a big share for his trouble, and then at last be free from the haunting fear of exposure and ruin.

He felt sure that he was doing quite right in advising Mary Grant to pay.
Again and again he ran over Peggy's case in his mind, and could see no flaw in it.

In the old days haphazard marriages were rather the rule than the exception, and such things as registers were never heard of in far-out parts.

His trained mind, going through the various questions that a cross-examiner would ask, and supplying the requisite answers, decided that, though it might seem a trifle improbable, there was nothing contradictory about Peggy's story.

A jury would sympathise with her, and the decisions of the Courts all leaned towards presuming marriage where certain circumstances existed.