the room, gazing at the burning logs in the big open
hearth.

At length there came a sound of horses' hoofs in the yard, and I saw
Mrs. Coverthorne and Mr. Denny exchange a quick glance; then, a few
minutes later, one of the maids knocked at the door and announced Mr.
Nicholas Coverthorne.

Miles's mother rose to her feet, letting her work drop unheeded to the
floor.

"Come, Sylvester," she said; "Mr. Denny has some private business to
transact, and we will go into another room."

In the passage we met Mr. Coverthorne. He paused as though about to
speak, but his sister-in-law passed him with a slight inclination of
her head. I saw the man's face in the half-light of the passage--grim,
cold, forbidding; and so the recollection of it has always remained in
my mind. He passed on with a measured stride, entered the parlour, and
closed the door behind him.

It was not until some years later that I heard from the lips of my
friend an exact account of the interview which followed; but so vividly
was every detail of it impressed on Miles's mind that in after life he
could recall it as though it had been an event of yesterday.

Mr. Denny and the visitor exchanged a formal salutation, and the latter
took a chair by the side of the table. A man of iron will and
unrelenting purpose, tall and heavily built, the little dried-up lawyer
seemed no match for such an adversary; but he was evidently prepared
for the fray, and began by politely pushing the decanter and a glass
towards his opponent. Mr. Nicholas, however, declined the proffered
refreshment with a somewhat peremptory wave of his hand.

"Your time, Mr. Coverthorne, I know is valuable," began the lawyer,
"and therefore I know you will thank me to come at once to business. I
requested you to meet me here to ask you once more whether you were
finally determined to assert your claim to half the Coverthorne
estate--a claim based, of course, on the will made early in the present
year, under very extraordinary circumstances, by your brother James?"

An angry glint came into the visitor's cold gray eyes, but he was too
strong a man to give way to any outburst of passion.

"I thought we had come to a clear and definite understanding on that
point long ago," he replied. "If that is all you have to say, you have
brought me here for nothing. Moreover, I strongly resent your
suggestion that the will was made under any 'extraordinary
circumstances.' For reasons of his ow