mother first, afterwards for you and your children. Those men were
called trustees; two of them, Charlotte, were your half-brothers, John
and Jasper Harman; the other was your mother's only living brother,
Sandy Wilson. These trustees were false to you: two of them by simply
ignoring the trust and taking the money to themselves; the other, by
pretending to be dead when he ought to have been in England attending to
his duty. The Harmans, the other trustees, so fully believed me to be
dead that they thought their sin would never be found out. But they
reckoned without their host, for Sandy has returned, and the missing
trustee can act now. Better late than never--eh, Niece Charlotte?"

"My poor mother!" said Charlotte, "my poor, poor mother!"

She covered her face with her hands. The suddenness and greatness of the
crime done had agitated her. She was very much upset. Her husband came
again very near and put his hand on her shoulder. His face, too, was
troubled.

"It was a terrible sin," he said, "a terrible sin to lie on these men's
breasts for three and twenty years. God help these sinners to
repentance!"

"Yes, God help them," repeated Uncle Sandy, "and also those they have
wronged. But now look up, Charlotte, for I have not told you all. A man
never sins for himself alone; if he did it would not so greatly matter,
for God and the pangs of an evil conscience would make it impossible for
him to get off scot free; but--I found it out in the bush, where, I can
tell you, I met rough folks enough--the innocent are dragged down with
the guilty. Now this is the case here. In exposing the guilty the
innocent must suffer. I don't mean you, my dear, nor my poor little
wronged Daisy. In both your cases the time for suffering, I trust, is
quite at an end, but there is another victim." Here Uncle Sandy paused,
and Charlotte, having recovered her composure, stood upright on the
hearthrug ready to listen. "When I went to Somerset House yesterday, I
had, in order to obtain a sight of Mr. Harman's will, to go through a
little ceremony. It is not necessary to go into it. I had to get certain
papers, and take orders to certain rooms. All this was the little form
imposed on me by the Government for my curiosity. At last I was told to
go to a room, called the reading room, and asked to wait there until the
will was brought to me. It was a small room, and I sat down prepared to
wait patiently enough. There were about half-a-dozen people