"True," said Donna Dolores, musingly.
"He will certainly have to settle that trifling question with Dr. Devarges's heirs, whoever they may be."
"True," said Donna Dolores.
"In short, I see no reason, even from your own view-point, why you should not fight this claim. The orphan you sympathise with is not an active party. You have only a brother opposed to you, who seems to have been willing to barter away a sister's birthright. And, as I said before, your sympathies, however kind and commendable they may be, will be of no avail unless the courts decide against Dr. Devarges. My advice is to fight. If the right does not always succeed, my experience is that the Right, at least, is apt to play its best card, and put forward its best skill. And until it does that, it might as well be the Wrong, you know."
"You are wise, Don Arturo. But you lawyers are so often only advocates. Pardon, I mean no wrong. But if it were Grace—the sister, you understand—what would be your advice?"
"The same. Fight it out! If I could overthrow your grant, I should do it. The struggle, understand me, is there, and not with this wife and sister. But how does it come that a patent for this has not been applied for before by Gabriel? Did your anonymous correspondent explain that fact? It is a point in our favour."
"You forget—our grant was only recently discovered."
"True! it is about equal, then, ab initio. And the absence of this actual legatee is in our favour."
"Why?"
"Because there is a certain human sympathy in juries with a pretty orphan—particularly if poor."