‘Take no notice of him. Refer him to your lawyer in London. The path of duty is very clear. We find ourselves, by a merciful interposition of Providence, restored to our rightful position in society. You to take your place as the head of one of the old county families, I to still labour for my blessed Master in a sphere of increased usefulness. You owe it to your family to at once take possession of the title and estate, and not to have a moment’s delay.’ ‘But,’ said the Colonel, ‘if there should be a grain of truth in this cock-and-bull story it might be awkward. I should like to have an inquiry made about this boy.’ ‘Pray, do nothing of the kind. You only open the way to fraud and imposition. Your late brother never treated us fairly. He was often positively rude to me, and his son—if this boy is such—has no claims on us.’ ‘Well,’ said the Colonel, ‘I should not like to behave shabbily.’ ‘What do you mean, Colonel?’ said the lady indignantly. ‘I am not the one to recommend you to do that. The boy is no concern of ours. We take what the law gives us. It is a duty we owe to society to do that. I am aware,’ added the lady, ‘that Sir Watkin had a son, that the infant was stolen, and that the dead body was placed in the family vault. Not all the lawyers in London, and they are bad enough, can upset that.’ ‘But suppose the wrong child was buried?’ ‘Fiddle-de-dee!’ said the lady. ‘We know better than that. The estates are fairly ours, and we return to England as soon as we can to take our rights. Mr. Wentworth and his wife between them have concocted this villainous story, which no decent person would ever think of believing.’ Wentworth and his wife were quite aware of that; they believed in the boy, who was—to judge from the family portraits—a striking representation of the deceased Baronet at his time of life. But would the world believe it? that was the question to be asked. Poor Sally on her deathbed had no inducement to tell a lie. Unfortunately, she had kept her secret too long. She had hoped to have made a harvest of the boy, but death had come to her, and all her hopes had ended in the grave. As is often the case, she was too clever by half.