I suspected my stepmother at once; and I hurried back to Beauleigh.

It had bucked me up, don't you know, to think that I had a child.

I had it out with my stepmother; and what do you think she told me ?" "Can't guess; but I'm laying odds that it doesn't surprise me," said Lord Crosland.
"She said that the fact of my having a son and heir would stand in the way of my making the marriage she hoped.

That the boy was in the hands of a respectable couple, where I need never hope to find him; that he would be brought up in the station of life suitable to his mother's having been the daughter of a Tutor.

My word, I did talk about the firm of Stryke & Wigram!" "I should think you must have," said Lord Crosland.
"I lost no time, but put the matter in the hands of a crack Private Inquiry Agency.