ugh to last
him to the end of the term. So he would have the five-pound note
untouched when he got to London, and if driven to it he could get, I
should think, six or seven pounds for his watch and chain."

"That would give him enough to keep him some little time. If he had been
a couple of years older I should say that he would probably enlist at
once, as you had both made up your minds to go into the army. But
although lads do enlist under the proper age, no recruiting officer or
doctor would pass him as being eighteen. The first thing to do will be
to advertise for him--in the first place to advertise offering a reward
for information as to his whereabouts, and in the second place
advertising to him direct, begging him to come home."

"But he would never come, father," Rupert said, looking at the letter,
which Captain Clinton still held in his hand.

"It would depend how we advertised. Suppose I were to say, 'Statement of
woman not believed; we are in as much doubt as before.'"

The others looked up in intense surprise.

"Oh, father, how could you say that?" Rupert exclaimed. "Oh, if we could
but say so! I should be quite, quite content to know that either of us
might be her son--that would not matter so much if we felt that you
loved us both equally; but how could you say so?"

"Because, Rupert," Captain Clinton said gravely, "I still think there is
great ground for doubt."

"Do you really, father? Oh, I am pleased! I think--yes, I am sure that I
could bear now to know that Edgar is your real son, and not I. It would
be so different to learn it from your lips, to know that you all love me
still, instead of hearing it in the dreadful way Edgar did. But how do
you doubt, father? It seemed to me from reading the letter so certain."

"Do you really doubt, Percy?" Mrs. Clinton asked.

"I do indeed, Lucy; and I will give you my reasons. In the first place,
this woman left India a few weeks after the affair. She certainly could
not have seen the children until we returned to England, and, so far as
we know, has never seen them since. If she has seen them, she never can
have spoken to them or come in any sort of contact with them, therefore
she cannot possibly have known which is which. When she saw them at
Cheltenham, and Rupert says that she was there more than a week, she met
them upon every possible occasion and stared hard at them. It is
evident, therefore, that she was for all that time doubtful. No doubt
sh