“But I presume you admit that they are likewise mine.  And I shall certainly not part with them.”

“If you oppose me in this, I’ll put them into Chancery,” cried the dowager.  “I am their nearest relative, and have a right to them.”

“Nearest relative!” he repeated.  “You must have lost your senses.  I am their father.”

“And have you lived to see thirty, and never learnt that men don’t count for anything in the bringing up of infants?” shrilly asked the dowager.  “If they had ten fathers, what’s that to the Lord Chancellor?  No more than ten blocks of wood.  What they want is a mother.”

“And I have now given them one.”

Without another word, with the red flush of emotion on his cheek, he went up to his wife’s room.  She was alone then, dressed, and just coming out of it.  He put his arm round her to draw her in again, as he shortly explained the annoyance their visitor was causing him.

“You must stay here, my dearest, until I can go down with you,” he added.  “She is in a vile humour, and I do not choose that you should encounter her, unprotected by me.”

“But where are you going, Val?”

“Well, I really think I shall get a policeman in, and frighten her into saying what she has done with the children.  She’ll never tell unless forced into it.”

Anne laughed, and Hartledon went down.  He had in good truth a great mind to see what the effect would be.  The old woman was not a reasonable being, and he felt disposed to show her very little consideration.  As he stood at the hall-door gazing forth, who should arrive but Thomas Carr.  Not altogether by accident; he had come up exploring, to see if there were any signs of Val’s return.

“Ah! home at last, Hartledon!”

“Carr, what happy wind blew you hither?” cried Val, as he grasped the hands of his trusty friend.  “You can terrify this woman with the thunders of the law if she persists in kidnapping children that don’t belong to her.”  And he forthwith explained the state of affairs.

Mr. Carr laughed.

“She will not keep them away long.  She is no fool, that countess-dowager.  It is a ruse, no doubt, to induce you to give them up to her.”

“Give them up to her, indeed!” Val was beginning, when Hedges advanced to him.

“Mrs. Ball says the children have only gone to Madame Tussaud’s, my lord,” quoth he.  “The nurse told her so when she went out.”

“I wish she was herself one of Madame Tussaud’s figure-heads!” cried Val.  “Mr. Carr dines here, Hedges.  Nonsense, Carr; you can’t refuse.  Never mind your coat; Anne won’t mind.  I want you to make acquaintance with her.”

“How did you contrive to win over Dr. Ashton?” asked Thomas Carr, as he went in.

“I put the matter before him in its true light,” answered Val, “asking him whether, if Anne forgave me, he would condemn us to live out our lives apart from each other:  or whether he would not act the part of a good Christian, and give her to me, that I might strive to atone for the past.”