"I will as soon as I have restored her son to her. We have found him, you know." "You tell me so. You think it is Sir Humphrey Woodroffe, is it not?" "We are perfectly certain it is. Lady Woodroffe has told you, I dare say, what we have done." "Something--something. You are working, no doubt, in the interests of the second baronet?" "Yes, oh yes." Dick grinned. "He is my half-brother, you know. I am anxious to restore him to his real rank, which is mine. He shall become what he is pleased to describe me--an outsider and a cad." "Two Cains and no Abel. A slaughterous pair. Well, have you proved your case yet?" "To our own satisfaction, perfectly. To the complete satisfaction of the world as soon as the story is told. For lawyers--well--there is one point lacking." "That one point! That one point! Always that one point! It is like connecting your family with illustrious ancestry--always the one point wanting. I need not ask what that point is." "No, because you are the person who can supply the link." "Is that so?" asked the doctor, dryly. "Then, while you are waiting for that link, my dear Richard, I advise you to tie up your papers and go back to legitimate business." He stopped, because they were arrived at his own door. "Come in," he said. "Now then, my dear boy, sit down and let us have it out. First of all, however, understand that you cannot establish that link. You say that I am the only person who can supply it. Well, if that is so, remember that I shall not." "You mean, will not." "Just as you like. The distinction between _will_ and _shall_ is sometimes too subtle for the rules of syntax." "But, my dear Sir Robert, just consider what a lot I can prove. Lady Woodroffe goes to a hotel in Birmingham. She drives in hurriedly; her child is ill. She sends for a medical man. She takes two bedrooms and a sitting-room. She has an ayah. The medical man stays with her the whole night. In the morning the child dies----" "How do you know all these things?" "By the note-book of the man who was called in, by the books of the hotel, by the evidence of the medical man himself, by the evidence of a waiter who remembers the case, by the register of deaths." "All this looks strong, I admit." "So that we can actually prove the death of Sir Humphrey's only son. And we can call upon Lady Woodroffe to inform us who is the man calling himself Sir Humphrey's only son." "You prove that a woman calling herself Lady Woodroffe did all these things." "And we can produce a witness who will swear to her identity." "After all these years I doubt if you could--if that evidence would be received. I admit that you have a case. As it is, you could make a _cause célèbre_. You are able to make things horribly uncomfortable for Lady Woodroffe; and you are able to inspire the young man, her son, with a lively animosity against yourself."