“It’s a confoundedly unpleasant one!”
“But harmless, my lord. Really harmless.”
The younger man’s impatience darkened his face, but he controlled it—a sure sign that he was in earnest. “Tell me this,” he said. “What evidence would upset us? You told me once that the claim could be reopened on fresh evidence. On what evidence?”
“I regard the case as closed,” Stubbs answered stubbornly. “But if you put the question—” he seemed to reflect—“the point at issue, on which the whole turned, was the legitimacy of your great-grandfather, my lord, Peter Paravicini Audley’s son. Mr. John’s great-grandfather was Peter Paravicini’s younger brother. The other side alleged, but could not produce, a family agreement admitting that the son was illegitimate. Such an agreement, if Peter Paravicini was a party to it, if it was proved, and came from the proper custody, would be an awkward document and might let in the next brother’s descendants—that’s Mr. John. But in my opinion, its existence is a fairy story, and in its absence, the entry in the register stands good.”
“But such a document would be fatal?”
“If it fulfilled the conditions it would be serious,” the lawyer admitted. “But it does not exist,” he added confidently.
“And yet—I’m not comfortable, Stubbs,” Audley rejoined. “I can’t get John Audley’s face out of my mind. If ever man looked as if he had his enemy by the throat, he looked it; a d—d disinheriting face I thought it! I don’t mind telling you,” the speaker continued, some disorder in his own looks, “that I awoke at three o’clock this morning, and I saw him as clearly as I see you now, and at that moment I wouldn’t have given a thousand pounds for my chance of being Lord Audley this time two years!”
“Liver!” said Stubbs, unmoved. “Liver, my lord, asking your pardon! Nothing else—and the small hours. I’ve felt like that myself. Still, if you are really uneasy there is always a way out, though it may be impertinent of me to mention it.”
“The old way?”
“You might marry Miss Audley. A handsome young lady, if I may presume to say so, of your own blood and name, and no disparagement except in fortune. After Mr. John, she is the next heir, and the match once made would checkmate any action on his part.”