"There is something very odd about this, Claudius. Have you got such a thing as a birth certificate to show?"
"Yes," answered Claudius, after a pause. "I have everything in perfect order, my mother's marriage and all."
"Then why, in Heaven's name, can you not show it, and put all these rascally lawyers to flight?"
"Because—" Claudius began, but he hesitated and stopped. "It is a curious story," he said, "and it is precisely what I want to talk to you about."
"Is it very long?" asked the Duke; "I have not dined yet."
"No, it will not take long, and if you have nothing better to do we will dine together afterwards. But first there are two things I want to say. If I prove to you that I am the son of my uncle's sister, will you tell Mr. Screw that you know it for a fact, that is, that if it had to be sworn to, you would be willing to swear to it?"
"If you prove it to me so that I am legally sure of it, of course I will."
"The other thing I will ask you is, not to divulge what I shall tell you, or show you. You may imagine from my being unwilling to show these papers, even to a lawyer, when my own fortune is concerned, that I attach some importance to secrecy."
"You may trust me," said the Duke; "you have my word," he added, as if reluctantly. People whose word is to be trusted are generally slow to give it. Claudius bowed his head courteously, in acknowledgment of the plighted promise. Then he opened a trunk that stood in a corner of the room, and took from it the iron box in which he had deposited the lawyer's letter on that evening three months before, when his destiny had roused itself from its thirty years' slumber. He set the box on the table, and having locked the door of the room sat down opposite his guest. He took a key from his pocket.
"You will think it strange," he said with a smile, "that I should have taken the liberty of confiding to you my secret. But when you have seen what is there, you will perceive that you are the most fitting confidant in this country—for general reasons, of course; for I need not say there is nothing in those papers which concerns you personally." Claudius unlocked the box and took out a few letters that were lying on the top, then he pushed the casket across the table to the Duke.