"Lord Brotherton is there, is he not?"
"I think he left to-day. He was to do so. I heard no news." He looked across to Mary, and saw that her face was sad and solemn.
"The child that they called Lord Popenjoy is dead," said the Dean. He was neither sad nor solemn. He could not control the triumph of his voice as he told the news.
"Poor little boy!" said Mary.
"Dead!" exclaimed Jack.
"I've just had a telegram from my lawyer in London. Yes; he's out of the way. Poor little fellow! As sure as I sit here he was not Lord Popenjoy."
"I never understood anything about it," said Jack.
"But I did. Of course the matter is at rest now. I'm not the man to grudge any one what belongs to him; but I do not choose that any one belonging to me should be swindled. If she were to have a son now, he would be the heir."
"Oh, papa, do not talk in that way."
"Rights are rights, and the truth is the truth. Can any one wish that such a property and such a title should go to the child of an Italian woman whom no one has seen or knows?"