A CABINET COUNCIL.
"I don't like it," said Richard. "The thing is proved down to the
ground. But I don't like it."
On the table lay the bundle of baby-clothes recovered by the true
mother. It was untied. The little flannels, the little frock, the
little woollen socks, the little cap--a touching little bundle to one
who had memories of the things. And near the table, as if guarding the
spoil she had carried off, Alice lay upon the sofa, slowly recovering
from the excitement of the afternoon.
"Not like it, Dick?" Molly asked. "Why?"
Alice laid her hand upon the things. "I want no other proof," she
said. "I made these things; I made them all. What more would you have?"
"What more can we desire?" asked Molly.
"I say that I don't like it." Dick rubbed his chin. "I don't like it
at all. It means defiance. I was in hopes that she would climb down
when she saw the copy of the entry. But she didn't. I understand now.
She can't afford to climb down; so she must defy us. She will fight,
if we make her. She sends for the mother of the child. She actually
gives her another weapon, and she says, 'Do your worst. I defy you!'"
"What do you mean by not being able to climb down, Dick?"
"Why, she's not only a great lady, rich and well born, and in society.
She is also a leader in all kinds of religious and philanthropic
movements. A certain religious paper, for instance, called her, the
other day, the Queen of the White Lilies. Exposure would be a terrible
thing for her. But if she can make it look, as she will try, like an
attempt on my part to get money out of Alice or herself, the thing
might do her no harm. However, there's the register. They can't say I
forged that entry."
"Well, but, Dick, what do you mean? You prove that her son is dead,
and that he was buried under his own name without any concealment,
just before the adoption; and we've got the baby-clothes, and we
recognize them. What more _can_ you want? She must climb down, as you
call it."
"We have got lots more, if you come to that. We have got the man who
found the child. I wonder how Sir Robert would like going into court
and deposing that he bought a baby for adoption by an unknown person.
We have also got the mother of the adopted child. Unfortunately, there
is nothing at all to connect Lady Woodroffe with the adoption. Without
that connection the case breaks down. There's the point."
"Does Humphrey know anything about it?"
"I believe not. Lady Woodroffe is not likely to tell him."
"You must not set my son against me," said the mother.
"Not if we can help it. But about the value of this evidence. Now,
Molly, please go into the witness-box." She stood up behind a chair,
placing her hands on the back. "I am counsel. The jury are sitting
over there; the judge is on your right. Keep your eyes on counsel.
Now, you are Alice first--Alice Haveril. You swear, madam, that you
know these clothes. How do you know them? Because you made them with
your own hands. Are they made of rare or uncommon materials? Are they
not made of stuff commonly used for the garments of infants? Is there
anything distinctive in the materials used? They are also made in the
fashion commonly used for children, are they not? Nothing distinctive,
then, in the fashion? So that, for materials or for shape, there is
nothing to make them different from any other baby-clothes? Nothing.
Then, madam, how do you know that they were made by your own work?"
"Because I know," said Molly.
"Because you know. But how do you know?"
"Because I remember."
"But you cannot tell me how you remember them--by what mark?" He took
up the frock. "Here is a crest in red silk. Did you work that? No. Yet
it is on the frock."
"Well, Dick," said Molly, "you needn't take so much pleasure in
knocking the case to pieces."
"I am only showing you what it amounts to. Now, get into the box
again. You are Mr. Richard Woodroffe, the expert in sagacity. What
have you got? A certified copy of an entry in the register of births
and deaths. You place, I believe, great reliance on that entry? It
records the death of the child of Sir Humphrey Woodroffe. Your theory
is that the child who died was immediately replaced by the child who
was adopted. Very well. But if there was no concealment of the death,
how could there be substitution?"
"There's an answer to that," Molly replied quickly. "The woman
never thought of hiding her name until after the child was dead and
buried--until she thought of the substitution."
"That is your theory. When you come to proof--how do you know that the
child whose death is recorded was really the son of Sir Humphrey? Was
the death announced in the papers? They have been searched, but there
is no mention of the event. Yet, when a man of such great importance
as Sir Humphrey Woodroffe loses his only son, the announcement of the
event would be made in all the papers, both here and in India. How do
you explain that omission? It is not for us--I'm on the other side,
Molly--to find out the reason of this lying entry; it is sufficient
for us to prove the continuous existence of the child from his birth
to the present day. Who made that declaration? We do not know; we
do not care. It is sufficient for our purposes to prove that Lady
Woodroffe at the time was with her father in Scotland."
"Oh, Dick, this is too horrible!"
"When such a child dies, everybody knows. Did her ladyship's family
hear of it? It appears not. Evidence will be brought to show that
she set out for London with her boy, that she wrote on arrival, and
that she wrote immediately afterwards announcing the return of her
husband. When such a child dies, the servants all know. Evidence will
be given to show that none of the servants knew, or heard about, the
loss of the heir--the only child. We are to prove that so terrible an
event was not even announced in the servants' hall. But you shall hear
Lady Woodroffe's own statement. Molly, you are now Lady Woodroffe,
but I am speaking for you. 'In the autumn of 1873 I was staying at
the country seat of my father, Lord Dunedin, in Scotland. I had just
returned from India, and was waiting for the arrival of my husband,
who was retiring from Indian service. Early in the month of February I
received a telegram from Brindisi, to the effect that my husband had
arrived there, and was coming home as fast as he could travel. I was
to meet him at the house I had taken in London. I therefore left my
father's, went on to Edinburgh, stayed the night there, and came on
next morning to London, bringing with me the child and my ayah. The
next day, or the day after, my husband arrived. I have never been in
Birmingham in my life. My child, as an infant, never had any serious
illness. As to the entry in the register, I heard of it for the first
time from Mr. Richard Woodroffe, calling himself a distant cousin,
a vocalist, who seems to have conceived and invented some kind of
conspiracy for duping Mrs. Haveril, who is wealthy, and getting money
for himself out of her!'"
"Oh, Dick," said Molly, "you haven't!"
"'You ask me'--you are still Lady Woodroffe--'what proofs I have of
these assertions. I have the clearest proofs possible--the letter of
my husband, telling me when he would arrive, the evidence of my father
that I left Dunedin Castle in time to arrive in London a day or two
before my husband--not more.' The evidence of an aged, white-haired,
venerable peer will be conclusive, Molly. 'I have old servants who can
prove that they have known the child from day to day, and must have
discovered the fact immediately had there been any change.' Do you
hear, Molly? An aged father, aged servants, a lady with a commanding
and queenly presence, a brow of brass, and a voice steady and limpid
as that of Truth herself. Poor Truth! she may get down into her well
again."
"Well; but about the hotel and the register?"
"Let us ask Lady Woodroffe. She says, 'I know nothing about either. I
cannot understand or explain who the woman was that personated me, and
said her child was the son of Sir Humphrey. It has been suggested that
she may have been the mistress of my husband. I cannot for a moment
allow that my husband, the most blameless of men, whose life was
passed with open windows, could have carried on an illicit connection.
It is impossible and absurd. I have no theory to offer about the
personation. I cannot understand it.' That is all."
"She is the most shameless, most abominable, creature alive!" said
Molly.
"She has her reputation to maintain. Well, what have we got on our
side? The entry; the fact of the adoption; and the resemblance. Put
Sir Humphrey, the second baronet, in the box. You are now that
worthy, Molly. Look at him, gentlemen of the jury. Look at him well.
Turn him round slowly like a hairdresser's waxen effigy. Observe the
fall of his hair and its colour; the colour of his eyes; the shape of
his head. Here is a portrait of Anthony Woodroffe, who, we maintain,
was his father: could there be a more striking resemblance? Here is
the respectable Richard Woodroffe, also a son--an unworthy son--of
Anthony, and who, we maintain, is the half-brother of the baronet.
You observe again a startling resemblance? Then up jumps the other
side, with the portrait of Sir Humphrey. Same hair--same eyes. Where
is your other resemblance then? Which of the two is his father? He is
curiously like them both. See?
"'Resemblance,' the learned counsel continued, 'is not enough. Let us
hear the evidence of Sir Robert Steele, M.D., F.R.S., Ex-President
of the College of Physicians, author of the Lord knows how many
treatises. Take the book, Sir Robert.' We know what he will say about
the child and the adoption. Now, listen. He goes on, 'The business
over, I thought no more of the matter. Nor did I know the name of the
lady, nor did I inquire. It was for me a matter of business partly,
because I charged a fee, and of charity partly, because the child
would otherwise have gone into the workhouse. I should not like to
identify the lady after all these years, when she must have changed
greatly; she wore a thick veil while we talked, and I remember only a
pale face and regular features.' Or stuff like that," Dick explained.
"'Yes, I am now acquainted with Lady Woodroffe, and I know her son.
I cannot explain his resemblance to Mr. Richard Woodroffe. The two
young men are said to be distant cousins. I never knew Mr. Anthony
Woodroffe. I know nothing more about the case; I express no opinion
upon the claim. The lady, in adopting the child, did not express her
intention of substituting it.' That is the evidence of the medical
man, if he would acknowledge that he remembered anything whatever
about the transfer!"
"Dick," said Molly, "Humphrey must not know anything
until--unless--the case is complete. Don't make him your enemy."
"My dear child, in the event of either success or failure, my
half-brother will most certainly regard me with a fraternal feeling,
compared with which Cain was loving and Richard the Third was loyal."
Molly looked at Alice doubtfully. She lay back in silence, her eyes
shut, paying very little attention to what was said. What, Molly
thought, would be Humphrey's attitude towards his new mother, when the
truth was disclosed to him? With the mother would come the relations.
Molly remembered how her own father, the disinherited, used to laugh
over his own cousins; over the family pride; how one was parish clerk
of St. Botolph's; how one had a select Academy at Homerton; and one
had a shop in Mare Street; and one was pew-opener; and one was a
Baptist Minister in some unknown but privileged corner of the earth.
And it occurred to her, for the first time, that the introduction of
Humphrey to his new relations would be a matter of some difficulty
and delicacy.
"I don't want any proof," said Alice. "I recognized my child when
first I saw him. His father was in every feature and every look. And
these are my things--mine: I made them." She laid her hand again on
the bundle which brought her so much certainty after so much doubt.
"But it won't do. It isn't enough. We want proof that will convince a
judge and a jury."
"If you haven't got it," she said, "I don't mind in the least. I shall
send for my son and tell him all. He may stay where he is, if he
likes. But I shall tell him all."
"I think," Dick continued, without heeding these words, "that we must
continue to advertise."
"And then?"
"Then--I don't know. I should like to bring an action. I don't know
what for. We didn't bargain for fraudulent substitution, but for open
adoption. I should think there ought to be grounds for action. But,
of course, I don't know. They certainly would not court publicity--at
least, I should think not. Whether they lost the case or won, the
evidence is so circumstantial that the world would certainly believe
in the fraud. I cannot believe that even Lady Woodroffe would care to
face the footlights."
"You talk as if you were at the same time perfectly certain, and also
in great doubt."
"I am both. I am perfectly certain, not only from the evidence of the
register and of these clothes, but from the lady's manner. How should
we hear and receive such a thing on the stage, Molly? Consider. You
are receiving the discovery of a thing you thought hidden away and
buried for ever--a discovery which will blast your whole life."
Molly presented immediately a stage interpretation of the emotion thus
rudely awakened. She started, threw up her left hand, pressed her
heart with her right hand; she opened her lips and panted; her eyes
dilated.
"That is very good. But Lady Woodroffe didn't do that at all. She was
much more effective. Sit bolt upright in your chair; stiffen yourself;
turn your eyes upon me quickly; at the mention of the dead child,
let all the colour go out of your face; at the word 'substitution'
let your head swim, clutch at the arms of your chair--so--recover
in a moment. Look at me again with strangely troubled eyes--so--you
remember you are going to fight; harden your face; set your lips firm;
let your eyes be like flints for resolution--so. Molly, my dear, if
you were to practise for a twelvemonth you couldn't do it half so well
as Lady Woodroffe herself. As a study she was most valuable. If there
had been any doubt before in my mind, there would be none now."
"How will Humphrey take it?"
"Are you concerned about him still, Molly?--after that midnight walk
of ours?"
"Well, Dick, he has not had my answer yet. I must consider him a
little. And he is your half-brother, remember."
"He will become, like his half-brother, an outsider--ha! an outsider,
a cad, a bounder!" Dick snorted. Forgiveness and tenderness to the
man who was trying to take his girl from him could not be expected.
Just then a telegram was brought in. It came from a certain firm of
solicitors at Birmingham, and was addressed to Richard Woodroffe--
"_Have found the medical man who attended the child. He has
his notes, remembers the case, has identified lady from
photograph; will swear to her!_"
"Good Heavens!" Richard waved the telegram over his head. "We have got
the next step. We can identify Lady Woodroffe with the woman whose
child died."
He read the telegram.
"Is there anything more wanted, at all?"
"There is one thing wanted. It is the identification of the lady as
the adopter of the child, and that lies in the hands of Sir Robert."
"Do you think he knows?"
"I am certain he knows. Why did he ask us all to dinner, if he does
not know? I am pretty certain, too, that he won't let out, unless we
make him."
"How can we make him, Dick, if he won't?"
"There is only one way, Molly. The case is strong,
circumstantially--that if we make it public, the world will be forced
to believe it, whatever the lady may say and swear. Nothing could be
stronger."
"I want no proof," said Alice. "If you cannot bring my son to me, I
shall go to him and tell him all."
"The one thing that will weigh with Sir Robert and the lady is the
fear of publicity. I will make one more attempt, Molly. I will go to
the lady first and to the doctor afterwards. If they remain obdurate,
I will take advice as to the best way of obtaining publicity. And that
will ruin the one and damage the other."
There was one other person present at this council. It was John
Haveril. He said nothing, but he listened, with far-away eyes, like a
gardener over a strawberry-bed. When Dick concluded, he took his hands
out of his pockets and walked out of the room.