"Never you mind what brings me back, sir! Just you tell me what you know about the Legitimacy Act!"
"The questions the police ask one!" marvelled Timothy. Behind the amusement in them, his eyes were keen, and speculative. Keeping them on Hemingway's face, he said: "It is an Act, Chief Inspector, passed in 1926, legalising the position of children who were born out of wedlock, but whose parents afterwards married one another."
"That's what I thought," said Hemingway. "What it means is, that as long as you do get married, your children are legitimate, doesn't it?"
"Yes, within certain limits," agreed Timothy.
"What limits, sir?"
"Well, neither parent must have been married to someone else at the time of the child's birth, for instance; and legitimated offspring are debarred from inheriting titles, or the estates that go with them. Otherwise -" He broke off. "I seem to have uttered something momentous!"
"Yes, sir," said Hemingway. "You have!"
Chapter Twenty
"Well," said Mrs. James Kane, replenishing her husband's cup, "I'm thankful to have you back again, anyway!"
Mr.. James Kane, luxuriously ensconced by his own fireside once more, bit into his third crumpet, and said somewhat thickly: "Cuckoo!"