"No; but I say, what is it worth? Gentlemen," said Hugh, turning to the visitors, "compare it with the register of my father's marriage. Observe, the one date is April 6, 1847; the other is June 12, 1847. Even if genuine, does it prove legitimacy?"
Drayton laid his hand on the lawyer's arm. "Here you, speak up, will ye?" he said.
Mr. Bonnithorne rose, and then Hugh Ritson's pale face became ghastly.
"This birth occurred in Scotland," he said. "Now, if the father happened to hold a Scotch domicile, and the mother lived with him as his wife, the child would be legitimate."
"Without a marriage?"
"Without a ceremony."
Natt pushed into the room, his cap in one hand, a letter in the other. He had knocked twice, and none had heard. "The post, sir; one letter for Master Paul."
"Good lad!" Drayton clutched it with a cry of delight.
"But my father had no Scotch domicile," said Hugh, with apparent composure.
"Oh, but he had," said Drayton, tearing open his envelope.