"What! What! What!" cried the Duke. "There can be no doubt at all," said Simms. "I have made enquiries." He gave details. The Duke listened, his narrow brain incensed at this monstrous statement that had suddenly risen up to confront it. "I don't believe a word of it," said he, when the recital was over, "and what's more, I won't believe it. Do you mean to tell me I don't know my own nephew?" "It's not a question of that," said Simms. "It's just a question of the facts of the case. There is no doubt at all that a man exactly like the late--your nephew, in fact, stayed at this hotel, that he there met the--your nephew. There is no doubt that this man gave the address to the hotel people he gave to us, and there is no doubt in my mind that he could make out a very good case if he were free. That there would be a very great scandal--a world scandal. Even if he were not to prove his case, the character of--your nephew--would be held up for inspection. Then again, he would have very powerful backers. Now you told me of this man Mulhausen. How would that property stand were this man to prove his claim and prove that Lord Rochester was dead when the transfer of the property was made to him? I am not thinking of my reputation," finished the ingenuous Simms, "but of your interests, and I tell you quite plainly, your Grace, that were this man to escape we would all be in a very unpleasant predicament." "Well, he won't escape," said the Duke. "I'll see to that." "Quite so, but there is another matter. The Commissioners in Lunacy." "Well, what about them?" "It is the habit of the Commissioners to visit every establishment registered under the act and unfortunately, they are men--I mean of course that, fortunately, they are men of the most absolute probity, but given to over-riding, sometimes, the considered opinion of those in close touch with the cases they are brought in contact with. They would undoubtedly make strict enquiries into the truth of the story that Lord Rochester has just put up, and the result--I can quite see it--would drift us into one of those _exposes_, those painful and interminable lawsuits, destructive alike to property, to dignity, and that ease of mind inseparable from health and the enjoyment of those positions to which my labours and your Grace's lineage entitle us." "Damn the Commissioners," suddenly broke out his Grace. "Do you mean to say they would doubt my word?" "Unfortunately, it is not a question of that," said Simms. "It is a question of what they call the liberty of the subject."