-oh, my God! if it were true--fortune, love and everything else
were lost.

"Where were you married?" asked Sir John.

"At Edgerton--St. Helen's, Edgerton. The Rev. Henry Morton married us,
and the two witnesses were Sarah Smith, who was my maid, and Arthur
Ireton, who was head game-keeper here at Crown Anstey."

It was so quickly told and so seemingly correct, we looked at each other
in amaze.

"We must examine into it," said Sir John, "before going any further."

"That will be best," she replied, composedly. "I had better explain that
Miles, poor fellow, fell in love with me the first time he saw me. Sir
Barnard would not hear of such a thing. He told Miles that if he
persisted in marrying me he would curse him. Perhaps he had his own
reasons for not liking me. His son tried to obey him, but I am proud to
say that the love Miles had for me was far stronger than fear of his
father. Still, for pecuniary reasons he did not care to offend him, so
we were married privately the second year of my stay at Crown Anstey."

She turned to Lady Thesiger with a mocking smile.

"I know perfectly well," she said, "why your ladyship has never liked
me. You met me walking one evening with Miles Trevelyan in the Anstey
woods; you saw him kiss me. You know, now, that he was my husband and
had a right to kiss me if he chose."

Lady Thesiger bowed very stiffly.

"Two years after our marriage," Coralie continued, "my little son,
called Rupert, after the Crusader Trevelyan, was born. Under the
pretense of visiting some of my relations, I went to Lincoln. In the
registry of the church of St. Morton Friars you will find the proper
attestation of my son's birth."

"Where is that son?" asked Sir John, incredulously.

"At Lincoln. I can send for him. You can go there and see him; he is
under the care of Sarah Smith, my nurse. He is living and well, and he,
not Mr. Edgar, is the heir of Crown Anstey."

"But why," asked Sir John, incredulously, "why have you never told this
story before? It seems incredible that you should have waited until
now."

"I have my own reasons," she replied. "I waited first to see what Sir
Edgar would be like; then, when I saw him--I--I need not be ashamed to
own it, even before Miss Thesiger--I liked him, and if he had been
reasonable I should never have told my story at all."

"That is," said Sir John, with supreme disgust, "if Edgar had been duped
by you and had married you, you would have defrauded yo