‘Well, her explanation is that the other woman got her to conceal it, with the view of making money, but their difficulty was how to tell a story which would not incriminate themselves. Once or twice she sent an anonymous letter to the late Baronet, but he took no notice of it; and then she tried to speak to him, but he would not let her; and she was terribly afraid of him, as she says he was such a hard, arbitrary, imperious sort of man.’ ‘Well, we all know he was that,’ said the other. ‘He certainly was not a man to stick at anything where his passions, or his prejudices, or his interests were concerned. But where is the woman now?’ ‘In the workhouse. She says she had quite lost sight of the other one, till she found her in a London hospital, where she went to see her. But the poor thing was too far gone to be of any good, and now she says they have both been made fools of, and they had better have let the child alone, so far as making any money out of the transaction.’ ‘Was the new Baronet told of it?’ ‘He was. I wrote to him on the subject.’ ‘And what did he say?’ ‘Virtually that it was like my impudence, and that he hoped he should never hear from me again.’ ‘Well, that was not encouraging.’ ‘Then I wrote again.’ ‘And so did I,’ said Wentworth, ‘and this was the reply.’ Wentworth read as follows: ‘“SIR, ‘“In reply to yours of the 19th inst., I have only to say that I consider your letter founded on complete misapprehension of the facts of the case. The deceased Baronet had no heir but myself, and any attempt to set up a claim on behalf of another will be firmly resisted. Trusting that this is an end of the matter, and that I shall be troubled with no further communications on the subject, ‘“I am, yours truly, ‘“HUGH ROBERT STRAHAN.” ‘Now hear the wife. She adds a P.S. as follows: