“Why on earth wouldn’t you tell me before what that discussion was that you had with Sir John?”
“Simply because he said the disclosure would be the disclosure of a secret, not of his own, but of somebody else whom he couldn’t give away.”
“Ah! Then I guessed right?”
“What do you mean?”
And then Tempest explained how he had argued himself into the conclusion that the secret trust had been constituted to provide for Sir John’s daughter, and arranged in its curious form that the secret of a third party might be safeguarded.
“Why didn’t you tell me all that, Tempest?”
“I told Marston, but I didn’t see at the time how it affected you. Did Sir John tell you who his daughter was, or what the name was that she was known by?”
“No, he wouldn’t tell me even that, unless I would promise blindly to marry her. As I said in court, I only promised conditionally, and Sir John said that he must refuse to tell me her name.”
“Marston, show him Sir John’s watch.”
The solicitor took the watch from his chain and passed it across the table to his partner.