"It must be followed out to the end," said the Dean. "What! Here is a woman who professed for years to be a man's wife, who
bore his name, who was believed by everybody to have been his wife——"
"I did not say that, Mr. Dean," interrupted the lawyer.
"Who lived on the man's revenues as his wife, and even bore his title, and now in such an emergency as this we are to take a cock and bull story as gospel. Remember, Mr. Battle, what is at stake."
"Very much is at stake, Mr. Dean, and therefore these enquiries have been made,—at a very great expense. But our own evidence as far as it goes is all against us. The Luigi family say that there was no marriage. Her family say that there was, but cannot prove it. The child may die, you know."
"Why should he die?" asked Lord George.
"I am trying the matter all round, you know. I am told the poor child is in ill health. One has got to look at probabilities. Of course you do not abandon a right by not prosecuting it now."
"It would be a cruelty to the boy to let him be brought up as Lord Popenjoy and afterwards dispossessed," said the Dean.
"You, gentlemen, must decide," said the lawyer. "I only say that I do not recommend further steps."
"I will do nothing further," said Lord George. "In the first place I cannot afford it."