"Well?" asked Viner, after a pause.

Mr. Pawle made a puzzled gesture and shook his head, as if in amazement.

"In that case, if Wickham was the missing Lord Marketstoke, and this girl
is his daughter, she's--" He broke off, and became still more puzzled.
"Upon my honour," he exclaimed, "I don't know who she is!"

"What do you mean?" asked Viner. "She's his daughter, of
course--Wickham's. Only, in that case--I mean, if he was really Lord
Marketstoke--her proper name, I suppose, is Cave-Gray."

Mr. Pawle looked his young assistant over with an amused expression.

"You haven't the old practitioner's _flair_, Viner, my boy!" he said.
"When one's got to my age, and seen a number of queer things and
happenings, one's quick to see possible cases. Look here!--if Wickham
was really Lord Marketstoke, and that girl across the hall is his
daughter, she's probably--I say probably, for I don't know if the
succession in this case goes with the female line--Countess of
Ellingham, in her own right!"

Viner looked his surprise.

"Is that really so--would it be so?" he asked.

"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