’I have had to do with a good many made-up stories, Mr. Seely;—­and with a good many true stories.’

‘Of course, Sir John;—­no man with more.’

’He might be a party to making up a story.  There is nothing that I have seen in him to make me sure that he could not come forward with a determined perjury.  I shouldn’t think it, but it would be possible.  But his father and mother and sisters wouldn’t join him.’  Dick had told the story of the meeting on the lawn at great length.  ’And had it been a plot, he couldn’t have imposed upon them.  He wouldn’t have brought them into it.  And who would have got at him to arrange the plot?’

‘Old Caldigate.’

Sir John shook his head.  ’Neither old Caldigate nor young Caldigate knew anything of that kind of work.  And then his story tallies altogether with my hero Bagwax.  Of Bagwax I am quite sure.  And as Shand corroborates Bagwax, I am nearly sure of him also.  You must take his deposition, and let me have it.  It should be rather full, as it may be necessary to hear the depositions also of the doctor and his wife.  We shall have to get him out.’

‘You know best, Sir John.’

‘We shall have to get him out, Mr. Seely, I think,’ said Sir John, rising from his chair.  Then Mr. Seely took his leave, as was intended.

Mr. Seely was not at all convinced.  He was quite willing that John Caldigate should be released from prison, and that the Australian marriage should be so put out of general credit in England as to allow the young people to live in comfort at Folking as man and wife.  But he liked to feel that he knew better himself.  He would have been quite content that Mrs. John Caldigate should be Mrs. John Caldigate to all the world,—­that all the world should be imposed on,—­so that he was made subject to no imposition.  In this matter, Sir John appeared to him to be no wider awake than a mere layman.  It was clear to Mr. Seely that Dick Shand’s story was ’got up,’—­and very well got up.  He had no pang of conscience as to using it.  But when it came to believing it, that was quite another thing.  The man turning up exactly at the moment!  And such a man!  And then his pretending never to have heard of a case so famous!  Never to have heard this story of his most intimate friend!  And then his notorious poverty!  Old Caldigate would of course be able to buy such a man.  And then Sir John’s fatuity as to Bagwax!  He could hardly bring himself to believe that Sir John was quite in earnest.  But he was well aware that Sir John would know,—­no one better,—­by what arguments such a verdict as had been given might be practically set aside.  The verdict would remain.  But a pardon, if a pardon could be got from the Secretary of State, would make the condition of the husband and wife the same as though there had been no verdict.  The indignities which they had already suffered would simply produce for them the affectionate commendation of all England.  Mr. Seely felt all that, and was not at all averse to a pardon.  He was not at all disposed to be severe on Caldigate senior if, as he thought, Caldigate senior had bribed this convenient new witness.  But it was too much to expect that he should believe it all himself.