till she is of age," said
the Solicitor-General, who was a sweet-mannered, mild man among his
friends, though he could cross-examine a witness off his legs,--or
hers, if the necessity of the case required him to do so.

"Of course we could do that, Sir William. What is a year in such a
case as this?"

"Not much among lawyers, is it, Mr. Flick? You think that we
shouldn't bring our case into court."

"It is a good case, Sir William, no doubt. There's the
woman,--Countess, we will call her,--ready to swear, and has sworn,
that she was the old Earl's wife. All the people round call her the
Countess. The Earl undoubtedly used to speak of her as the Countess,
and send her little dribbles of money, as being his Countess, during
the ten years and more after he left Lovel Grange. There is the old
priest who married them."

"The devil's in it if that is not a good case," said Mr. Hardy.

"Go on, Mr. Flick," said the Solicitor-General.

"I've got all the documentary evidence of course, Sir William."

"Go on, Mr. Flick."

Mr. Flick scratched his head. "It's a very heavy interest, Sir
William."

"No doubt it is. Go on."

"I don't know that I've anything further to say, except that I'd
arrange it if I could. Our client, Sir William, would be in a very
pretty position if he got half the income which is at stake."

"Or the whole with the wife," said the Solicitor-General.

"Or the whole with the wife, Sir William. If he were to lose it all,
he'd be,--so to say, nowhere."

"Nowhere at all," said the Solicitor-General. "The entailed property
isn't worth above a thousand a year."

"I'd make some arrangement," said Mr. Flick, whose mind may perhaps
have had a not unnatural bend towards his own very large venture
in this concern. That his bill, including the honorarium of the
barristers, would sooner or later be paid out of the estate, he did
not doubt;--but a compromise would make the settlement easy and
pleasant.

Mr. Hardy was in favour of continued fighting. A keener, honester,
more enlightened lawyer than Mr. Hardy did not wear silk at that
moment, but he had not the gift of seeing through darkness which
belonged to the Solicitor-General. When Mr. Flick told them of the
strength of their case, as based on various heads of evidence in
their favour, Mr. Hardy believed Mr. Flick's words and rejected Mr.
Flick's opinion. He believed in his heart that the English Countess
was an impostor, not herself believing in her