"There remains but one thing more to make the whole evidence complete.
We must see the registration of the birth of the child, and it would be
better to see the doctor who attended you, madam."

We did both on the following day. The registration of the child's birth
was right, perfect and without a flaw.

The doctor, a highly respectable medical practitioner, offered us his
evidence on oath.

There was nothing left, then, but to return to Crown Anstey and give up
possession.

I loved the little boy. It was too absurd to feel any enmity against
him. He was so bright and clever; it would have been unmanly not to have
loved dead Miles' son.

Of Coralie Trevelyan I asked but one favor; that she would allow me one
week in which to make some arrangement for Clare before she brought the
young heir home. She cheerfully agreed to this.

"You bear your reverses very bravely," she said.

"Better than I bore prosperity," I replied, and that, God knows, was
true.

This new trial had braced my nerves and made me stronger than I had ever
been in my whole life before.