write a full account of all that should take place during his absence
in Java, and send to him by mail from time to time. We can only hope
that this story will prove no less interesting to our readers than
it did to William Verheyst.

CHAPTER V.

Leopold van Zonshoven to Mr. William Verheyst.

My dear Friend,--Whilst you are sailing down the Red Sea, I am
entrusting to paper what I would not confide to any living mortal
but yourself.

My fortune still hangs in the balance. Without doubt the worthy
testatrix has done everything possible to insure her heritage to me;
but there are moments when I feel so great a repugnance to it as to
make me question whether it were not better to renounce it than to
become the instrument of Miss Roselaer de Werve's vengeance on this
side the grave. The idea of having to drive a grey-headed old man
from his manor-house, and to render a poor young lady, who has a
family claim on her aunt's inheritance, houseless, is too much for
me, though a whimsical old woman and the law have done their utmost
to set my conscience at ease.

But to commence my story. The day after you left me, I went over to
Utrecht to call on the lawyer, Van Beek. Perhaps in the hurry of our
parting I forgot to tell you this was my intention. At such times a
man often forgets the most important things he has to say.

The worthy functionary is a short, thin personage, with a tuft of hair
hanging over his forehead, sharp eyes, a long, thin nose, and thin
lips always closed; in fact, a perfect type of the shrewd, clever,
but inexorable lawyer.

He received me seated in an armchair, clad in a grey office coat,
and with a solemn white neckcloth fastened round his neck so tightly
that I really was afraid it would choke him.

When I entered the room he rose to salute me with a polite bow,
and only when he had learnt my name and my resolve to carry out the
intentions of the testatrix did a fine smile play about his mouth--a
smile which seemed to say: "You've come round, then, at last, though
you appeared to hesitate at first."

After a few words as to the sudden death of his client, and her
express wish to be buried as quietly as possible, without the
attendance of any of her relations, he told me he had been the
confidential adviser of Lady Roselaer for the last thirty years,
and was consequently able to give me all necessary information with
regard to her dealings with General von Zwenken, and her inte