"And the sister, the real heiress, is gone--disappeared! No one knows where! All trace of her is lost. But now comes to the surface an impostor! a woman who assumes the character and name of Grace Conroy, the sister!"
"One moment," said Arthur, quietly, "how do you know that it is an impostor?"
"Oh!" said Arthur, relapsing into his professional attitude again.
"Proofs," repeated Donna Dolores, hurriedly. "Is it not enough that she has married this Gabriel, her brother?"
"That is certainly strong moral proof--and perhaps legal corroborative evidence," said Arthur, coolly; "but it will not legally estop her proving that she is his sister--if she can do so. But I ask your pardon--go on!"
"That is all," said Donna Dolores, sitting up, with a slight gesture of impatience.
"Very well. Then, as I understand, the case is simply this: You hold a grant to a piece of laud, actually possessed by a squatter, who claims it through his wife or sister--legally it doesn't matter which--by virtue of a bequest made by one Dr. Devarges, who also held a grant to the same property?"
"Well, the matter lies between you and Dr. Devarges only. It is simply a question of the validity of the original grants. All that you have told me does not alter that radical fact. Stay! One moment! May I ask how you have acquired these later details?"
"There was no signature. The writer offered to prove all he said. It was anonymous."
"May I ask you further, without impertinence, if it is upon this evidence that you propose to abandon your claim to a valuable property?"
"I have told you before that it is not a legal question, Don Arturo," said Donna Dolores, waving her fan a little more rapidly.
"Good! let us take it in the moral or sentimental aspect--since you have purposed to honour me with a request for my counsel. To begin, you have a sympathy for the orphan, who does not apparently exist."
"Has already struck hands with the impostor, and married her to secure the claim. And this brother--what proof is there that he is not an impostor too?"
"He will certainly have to settle that trifling question with Dr. Devarges's heirs, whoever they may be."
"In short, I see no reason, even from your own view-point, why you should not fight this claim. The orphan you sympathise with is not an active party. You have only a brother opposed to you, who seems to have been willing to barter away a sister's birthright. And, as I said before, your sympathies, however kind and commendable they may be, will be of no avail unless the courts decide against Dr. Devarges. My advice is to fight. If the right does not always succeed, my experience is that the Right, at least, is apt to play its best card, and put forward its best skill. And until it does that, it might as well be the Wrong, you know."