“Entirely so. I have never been beyond Brussels before this.”
“Late years have nearly effaced national peculiarities. One crosses frontiers now, and never remembers a change of country.”
“Quite so.”
“The money, the coinage, perhaps, is the great reminder after all.”
“Money is the great reminder of almost everything, everywhere, sir,” said Sedley, with a stern and decisive tone.
“I am afraid you are right,” said Bramleigh, with a faint sigh; and now they seemed to stand on the brink of a precipice, and look over.
“What news have you for me?” said he at last, gulping as he spoke.
“None to cheer, nothing to give encouragement. The discovery at Castello will insure them a verdict. We cannot dispute the marriage; it was solemnized in all form and duly witnessed. The birth of the child was also carefully authenticated—there is n't a flaw in the registry, and they 'll take care to remind us on the second trial of how freely we scattered our contemptuous sarcasms on the illegitimacy of this connection on the first record.”
“Is the case hopeless, then?”
“Nothing is hopeless where a jury enters, but it is only short of hopeless. Kelson of course says he is sure, and perhaps so should I, in his place. Still they might disagree again: there's a strong repugnance felt by juries against dispossessing an old occupant. All can feel the hardship of his case, and the sympathy for him goes a great way.”