"He is a nasty little black thing."
"I shouldn't wonder."
"And looks——. Well, I don't want to abuse the poor child, and God knows, if he is what he pretends to be, I would do anything to serve him."
"That's just it, George," said the Dean, very seriously,—seriously, and with his kindest manner, being quite disposed to make himself agreeable to Lord George, if Lord George would be agreeable to him. "That's just it. If we were certified as to that, what would we not do for the child in spite of the father's brutality? There is no dis
honesty on our side, George. You know of me, and I know of you, that if every tittle of the evidence of that child's birth were in the keeping of either of us, so that it could be destroyed on the moment, it should be made as public as the winds of heaven to-morrow, so that it was true evidence. If he be what he pretends to be, who would interfere with him? But if he be not?"
"Any suspicion of that kind is unworthy of us;—except on very strong ground."
"True. But if there be very strong ground, it is equally true that such suspicion is our duty. Look at the case. When was it that he told you that he was going to be married? About six months since, as far as my memory goes."
"He said, 'I am to be married.'"
"That is speaking in the future tense; and now he claims to have been married two or three years ago. Has he ever attempted to explain this?"
"He has not said a word about it. He is quite unwilling to talk about himself."