"It may be--I'm not sure," replied Mr. Pawle. "As I say, I don't know how the succession runs in this particular instance. There are, as you are aware, several peeresses in their own rights--twenty-four or five, at least. Some are very ancient peerages. I know that three--Furnivale and Fauconberg and Conyers--go right back to the thirteenth century; three others--Beaumont, Darcy da Knayth, and Zorch of Haryngworth--date from the fourteenth. I'm not sure of this Ellingham peerage--but I'll find out when I get back to my office. However, granting the premises, and if the peerage does continue in the female line, it will be as I say--this girl's the rightful holder of the title!" Viner made no immediate answer and Mr. Pawle began to put up the letters in their original wrappings. "Regular romance, isn't it--if it is so?" he exclaimed. "Extraordinary!" "Shall you tell her?" asked Viner. Mr. Pawle considered the direct question while he completed his task. "No," he said at last, "not at present. She evidently knows nothing, and she'd better be left in complete ignorance for a while. You see, Viner, as I've pointed out to you several times, there isn't a paper or a document of any description extant which refers to her. Nothing in my hands, nothing in the banker's hands, nothing here! And yet, supposing her father, Wickham, to have been Lord Marketstoke, and to have entrusted his secret to Ashton at the same time that he gave him the guardianship of his daughter, he must have given Ashton papers to prove his and her identity--must! Where are they?" "Do you know what I think?" said Viner. "I think--if I'm to put it in plain language--that Ashton carried those papers on him, and that he was murdered for the possession of them!" Mr. Pawle nodded, and put the packet of letters in his pocket. "I shouldn't be surprised," he answered. "It's a very probable theory, my boy. But it presupposes one thing, and makes one horribly suspicious of another." "Yes?" inquired Viner. "It presupposes that Ashton let somebody into the secret," replied Mr. Pawle, "and it makes one suspect that the person to whom he did reveal it had such personal interest in suppressing it that he went to the length of murdering Ashton before Ashton could tell it to any one else. How does that strike you, Viner?" "It's this--and not the diamond!" declared Viner doggedly. "I've a sort of absolute intuition that I'm right." "I think so too," assented the old lawyer, dryly. "The fifty-thousand-pound diamond is a side-mine. Very well, now we know a lot, you and I. And, we're going to solve matters. And we're not going to say a word to this young lady, at present--that's settled. But I want to ask her some questions--come along."