yrle?"

He was too cautious to commit himself to an answer without taking time
to recover his self-possession first.

"Before I give my opinion," he said, "I must beg permission to clear
the ground by a few questions."

He put the questions--sharp, suspicious, unbelieving questions, which
clearly showed me, as they proceeded, that he thought I was the victim
of a delusion, and that he might even have doubted, but for my
introduction to him by Miss Halcombe, whether I was not attempting the
perpetration of a cunningly-designed fraud.

"Do you believe that I have spoken the truth, Mr. Kyrle?" I asked, when
he had done examining me.

"So far as your own convictions are concerned, I am certain you have
spoken the truth," he replied. "I have the highest esteem for Miss
Halcombe, and I have therefore every reason to respect a gentleman
whose mediation she trusts in a matter of this kind. I will even go
farther, if you like, and admit, for courtesy's sake and for argument's
sake, that the identity of Lady Glyde as a living person is a proved
fact to Miss Halcombe and yourself. But you come to me for a legal
opinion. As a lawyer, and as a lawyer only, it is my duty to tell you,
Mr. Hartright, that you have not the shadow of a case."

"You put it strongly, Mr. Kyrle."

"I will try to put it plainly as well. The evidence of Lady Glyde's
death is, on the face of it, clear and satisfactory. There is her
aunt's testimony to prove that she came to Count Fosco's house, that
she fell ill, and that she died. There is the testimony of the medical
certificate to prove the death, and to show that it took place under
natural circumstances. There is the fact of the funeral at Limmeridge,
and there is the assertion of the inscription on the tomb. That is the
case you want to overthrow. What evidence have you to support the
declaration on your side that the person who died and was buried was
not Lady Glyde? Let us run through the main points of your statement
and see what they are worth. Miss Halcombe goes to a certain private
Asylum, and there sees a certain female patient. It is known that a
woman named Anne Catherick, and bearing an extraordinary personal
resemblance to Lady Glyde, escaped from the Asylum; it is known that
the person received there last July was received as Anne Catherick
brought back; it is known that the gentleman who brought her back
warned Mr. Fairlie that it was part of her insanity to be bent on
p