"I can't credit it. Not even in the face of the facts. What, a poor little beggarly wretch of a half-breed gipsy like me, the sole heiress of an old aristocratic manor? Stuff and nonsense! Even if I have a right to it, I shall never get it."
"Oh, yes, you will," said Sybil, confidently. "I never heard of a clearer case than yours, as you have stated it. You have only to prove three marriages, three births, and one identity. And as marriages and births are always registered in your country, there will be no difficulty in that."
"Our marriages and births were always registered for the same reason that this license was kept, that some of us might come into the family fortune sometime and be made a lady or a gentleman of. And it begins to look like I was going to be the lady."
"Well, but don't spoil your fortune by marrying Satan," said Sybil.
"Marry Satan? I'd see him in Pandemonium first!" exclaimed the little student of Milton.
"I'm glad to hear you say so! Keep to that, and get out of this den of thieves as soon as ever you can," added Sybil.
"Now, may Satan fly away with me if ever I desert my friends. They risked their necks to rescue me from want in Dover, and have provided for me like a princess. If that's the way you good people requite kindness, I think I'll stick to my poor scamps. At least, I will never leave them, until I can give them each and all money enough to retire upon honestly."
"But you will have to leave them, before you can do that. You will have to live among law-abiding people, before you can get a lawyer to take up such a case as yours. I think, if ever I am free again, I would like to have you home with me; and I am sure my dear husband would take up your cause, as he has taken up that of many a poor client, without money, and without price."
Here the girl burst into such peals of laughter, that Sybil could but gaze on her in astonishment.
"Oh, you know, that is too good!" exclaimed Iska, as soon as she recovered from her mirthful paroxysm.