Sir John looked earnestly at him.

“There is no mistake,” he said; “we want no further evidence.  I can tell by his face this is poor Miles’ son.”

He was a lovely, bright-eyed boy; he had Coralie’s golden-brown hair, which fell in thick ringlets down his pretty neck.

“But it is Miles’ face,” Sir John repeated, and we did not doubt him.  “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.

CHAPTER XIII.

The arrangement made for my sister was one I knew not how to be grateful enough for.  Lady Thesiger insisted that she should go to Harden and remain there until she was well.

“She need know nothing of your misfortune yet.  We have but to say that she must be kept quiet and admit no visitors except such as we can trust to say nothing to her.  Agatha and myself will take the greatest care of her, and when she has recovered we will break the news to her.”

I was deeply grateful.  It was all arranged without exciting my sister’s suspicions.  She told her that for many reasons it had been considered better to put off the marriage for some time; that I was going abroad for a year, and that she was to spend the year with Lady Thesiger.

She looked wistfully at me.

“It’s all very sudden, Edgar.  Are you sure it is for the best?”

I steadied my voice and told her laughingly it was all for the best.

She asked where Coralie would be, and I told her that when she returned from the visit she was paying she would remain at Crown Anstey.

There was not a dry eye among the servants when my sister was carried from the home where she had been so happy.  Of course, they all knew the story—­it had spread like wild fire all over the neighborhood—­yet every one understood how vitally important it was that it should be kept from her.