t
its death pang, not a movement of her proud face betrayed her. She saw,
without looking at him, that the red-faced man was watching her. She
forced herself to raise her eyes, and saying simply, "This is Mr.
Harman's will," handed it to him across the table. He took it, and began
to devour the contents with quick and practised eyes. What she had taken
so long to discover he took it in at a glance. She heard him utter a a
smothered exclamation of pain and horror. She felt not the least
amazement or curiosity. All emotion seemed dead in her. She drew on her
gloves deliberately, pulled down her veil, and left the room. That dead,
dead youth she was dragging away with her had made her feel so cold and
numb that she never noticed that the red faced man had hastily folded up
the will, had returned it to the clerk at the desk, and was following
her. She went through the entrance hall, glancing neither to the left or
right. The man came near. When they both got into the square he came to
her side, raised his hat and spoke.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

TRUSTEES.

"Madam," said the stranger, "you will pardon my intruding on you, but I
saw it in your face. You are interested in that will you have just
read."

"Yes," answered Charlotte simply.

At another time she would have given an indignant retort to what she
would have considered a liberty. Now she turned her eyes with a mute
appeal in them to this stranger, for she recognized kindness in his
tones.

"It was my grandfather's will," she said, responding yet farther to the
full, kind gaze he gave her back.

"Ah! then that sets me right," said Sandy Wilson, for it was he. "That
sets me right, young lady. Now I saw you got a considerable bit of a
shock just then. You ain't, you'll forgive me for saying so, but you
ain't quite fit to meet any of your people for a bit; you may want them
not to guess, but any one with half an eye can see you're not the young
lady you were even when I entered that reading-room not half an hour
back. I'm a rough, plain man, but I'm very much interested in that will
too, and I'd like to have a little bit of a talk with you about it, if
you'll allow me. Suppose, miss, that you and I just take a turn round
the square for a few moments."

Charlotte's answer to this was to turn her face again towards the
particular building where she had read the will, and her companion,
turning with her, began to talk eagerly.

"You see, miss, it was quite a littl