"Who knows?" said Donna Dolores, indifferently. "It is not in regard of that that I speak. The claim is this. The Dr. Devarges, who also possesses a grant for the same land, made a gift of it to the sister of this Gabriel. Do you comprehend?" She paused, and fixed her eyes on Arthur.
"Perfectly," said Arthur, with his gaze still fixed on the window; "it accounts for the presence of this Gabriel on the land. But is she living? Or, if not, is he her legally const.i.tuted heir? That is the question, and--pardon me if I suggest again--a purely legal and not a sentimental question. Was this woman who has disappeared--this sister--this sole and only legatee--a married woman--had she a child?
Because that is the heir."
The silence that followed this question was so protracted that Arthur turned towards Donna Dolores. She had apparently made some sign to her aged waiting-woman, who was bending over her, between Arthur and the sofa. In a moment, however, the venerable handmaid withdrew, leaving them alone.
"You are right, Don Arturo," continued Donna Dolores, behind her fan.
"You see that, after all, your advice is necessary, and what I began as an explanation of my folly may be of business importance; who knows? It is good of you to recall me to that. We women are foolish. You are sagacious and prudent. It was well that I saw you!"
Arthur nodded a.s.sent, and resumed his professional att.i.tude of patient toleration--that att.i.tude which the world over has been at once the exasperation and awful admiration of the largely injured client.
"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 a.s.sumes the character and name of Grace Conroy, the sister!"
"One moment," said Arthur, quietly, "how do you know that it is an impostor?"
"How--do--I--know--it?"
"Yes, what are the proofs?"
"I am told so!"
"Oh!" said Arthur, relapsing into his professional att.i.tude 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?"
"Yes," said Donna Dolores, hesitatingly.
"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?"
"By letter."
"From whom?"
"There was no signature. The writer offered to prove all he said. It was anonymous."
Arthur rose with a superior smile.
"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."
"But her brother?"
"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?"
"True," said Donna Dolores, musingly.
"He will certainly have to settle that trifling question with Dr.
Devarges"s heirs, whoever they may be."
"True," said Donna Dolores.
"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."
"You are wise, Don Arturo. But you lawyers are so often only advocates.
Pardon, I mean no wrong. But if it were Grace--the sister, you understand--what would be your advice?"
"The same. Fight it out! If I could overthrow your grant, I should do it. The struggle, understand me, is there, and not with this wife and sister. But how does it come that a patent for this has not been applied for before by Gabriel? Did your anonymous correspondent explain that fact? It is a point in our favour."
"You forget--_our_ grant was only recently discovered."
"True! it is about equal, then, _ab initio_. And the absence of this actual legatee is in our favour."
"Why?"
"Because there is a certain human sympathy in juries with a pretty orphan--particularly if poor."
"How do you know she was pretty?" asked Donna Dolores, quickly.
"I presume so. It is the privilege of orphanage," he said, with a bow of cold gallantry.
"You are wise, Don Arturo. May you live a thousand years."
This time it was impossible but Arthur should notice the irony of Donna Dolores"s manner. All his strong combative instincts rose. The mysterious power of her beauty, which he could not help acknowledging, her tone of superiority, whether attributable to a consciousness of this power over him, or some knowledge of his past--all aroused his cold pride. He remembered the reputation that Donna Dolores bore as a religious devotee and rigid moralist. If he had been taxed with his abandonment of Grace, with his half-formed designs upon Mrs. Sepulvida, he would have coldly admitted them without excuse or argument. In doing so, he would have been perfectly conscious that he should lose the esteem of Donna Dolores, of whose value he had become, within the last few moments, equally conscious. But it was a part of this young man"s singular nature that he would have experienced a certain self-satisfaction in the act, that would have outweighed all other considerations. In the ethics of his own consciousness he called this "being true to himself." In a certain sense he was right.
He rose, and, standing respectfully before his fair client, said--
"Have you decided fully? Do I understand that I am to press this claim with a view of ousting these parties? or will you leave them for the present in undisturbed possession of the land?"
"But what do _you_ say?" continued Donna Dolores, with her eyes fixed upon his face.
"I have said already," returned Arthur, with a patient smile. "Morally and legally, my advice is to press the claim!"
Donna Dolores turned her eyes away with the slightest shade of annoyance.
"_Bueno!_ We shall see. There is time enough. Be seated, Don Arturo.
What is this? Surely you will not refuse our hospitality to-night?"
"I fear," said Arthur, with grave politeness, "that I must return to the Mission at once. I have already delayed my departure a day. They expect me in San Francisco to-morrow."