Then a change set in in my lord's bearing, and one day, a month or so later, he gave way to his father's insistence, and we were wed.

But I do not believe that my lord had left a son in France--I do not believe that had he done so, I should not have known it; I do not believe that under such circumstances, unfeeling as he was, he would have abandoned Mademoiselle de Maligny." "You think, then," said Rotherby, "that this man has raked up this story to--" "Consider what you are saying," cut in Mr.Caryll, with a flash of scorn.

"Should I have come prepared with documents against such a happening as this ?" "Nay, but the documents might have been intended for some other purpose had my lord lived--some purpose of extortion," suggested her ladyship.
"But consider again, madam, that I am wealthy--far wealthier than was ever my Lord Ostermore, as my friends Collis, Stapleton and many another can be called to prove.

What need, then, had I to extort ?" "How came you by your means, being what you say you are ?" she asked him.
Briefly he told her how Sir Richard Everard had cared for him, for his mother's sake; endowed him richly upon adopting him, and since made him heir to all his wealth, which was considerable.

"And for the rest, madam, and you, Rotherby, set doubts on one side.