A few minutes later, Slyne knocked at her door and entered, followed by the other two men. He had brought with him the papers which Mr. Jobling had prepared. Mr. Jobling carried an inkstand, and Captain Dove a decanter of brandy. Slyne seated himself at the table and waved Sallie back to her chair by the window.
"We're going to talk business for a few minutes," he told her, "and then get everything settled in writing—to keep you safe.
"Fire ahead now, Dove. You want to know—"
"Is Sallie really—"
"I don't know anyone of that name now. D'you mean Lady Josceline?"
Captain Dove glared at him, and then at the lawyer, and then at Sallie herself.
"Is that really who I am now, Jasper?" she asked, a most wistful inflection in her low voice.
"You needn't believe me," he answered her. "Ask Mr. Jobling. He'll tell you."
Mr. Jobling coughed importantly. "I'll tell you all I know myself, Lady Josceline," he promised her, and proceeded to repeat in part what he had told Slyne on the terrace the night before concerning the Jura family, but without a single word of the fortune awaiting the next of kin. Captain Dove's face expressed the extreme of astonishment as he too sat listening with the closest attention.
"That's as far as my present knowledge goes," the lawyer finished blandly. "And now—I understand that Captain Dove is prepared to supply the proof required in conclusion.