"

"Will you allow me?" said Winthrop soothingly. "Your niece contends,
sir," he explained, "that this money you offered her is not yours to
offer. She claims it belongs to her. That it's what should have been her
father's share of the profits on the Coates-Hallowell coupling pin. But,
as you have willed your niece so much money, although half of it is
hers already, I advised her not to fight. Going to law is an expensive
business. But she has found out--and that's what brings me uptown this
morning--that you intend to make a new will, and leave all her money and
your own to establish the Hallowell Institute. Now," Winthrop continued,
with a propitiating smile, "Miss Coates also would like to be a
philanthropist, in her own way, with her own money. And she wishes to
warn you that, unless you deliver up what is due her, she will proceed
against you."

Judge Gaylor was the first to answer.

"Mr. Winthrop," he said impressively, "I give you my word, there is not
one dollar due Miss Coates, except what Mr. Hallowell pleases to give
her."

Miss Coates contradicted him sharply. "That is not so," she said. She
turned to her uncle, "You and my father," she declared, "agreed in
writing you would share the profits always." Mr. Hallowell looked from
his niece to his lawyer. The lawyer, eyeing him apprehensively, nodded.
With the patient voice of one who tried to reason with an unreasonable
child, Mr. Hallowell began. "Helen," he said, "I have told you many
times there never was such an agreement. There was a verbal--"

"And I repeat, I saw it," said Miss Coates.

"When?" asked Hallowell.

"I saw it first when I was fifteen," answered the young woman steadily,
"and two years later, before mother died, she showed it to me again. It
was with father's papers."

"Miss Coates," asked the Judge, "where is this agreement now?"

For a moment Miss Coates hesitated. Her dislike for Gaylor was so
evident that, to make it less apparent, she lowered her eyes. "My
uncle should be able to tell you," she said evenly. "He was my father's
executor. But, when he returned my father's papers"--she paused and
then, although her voice fell to almost a whisper, continued defiantly,
"the agreement was not with them."

There was a moment's silence. To assure himself the others had heard as
he did, Mr. Hallowell glanced quickly from Winthrop to Gaylor. He half
rose from his chair and leaned across the table.

"What!" he demanded. His niece look