go? She replied by taking the matter in her
own hands.

"We can trust you, can't we, whether you agree to help us or not?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said more decidedly than he had hitherto spoken. "You
can trust me. If you tell me what you want, I will tell you straight
whether I can do anything. If I don't like it, the matter shan't go
beyond me."

"Very well, then, I will tell you exactly what we want. We believe
that the will is still there, and we believe that if some one in the
house were to make a thorough search it might be found. It is right
that it should be found, and that the property should go to those to
whom Mr. Penfold left it, and who are now being kept out of it by the
Miss Penfolds. I am very much interested in the matter, because it is
my son who is being cheated out of his rights; and I have made up my
mind to find the will. Now, what I want to know is, do you think that
one of the housemaids would be willing to give up her place and
introduce me as her successor, if I gave her twenty-five pounds? That
would be a nice little sum, you know, to begin housekeeping with."

Mrs. Conway saw at once by the expression of the young carpenter's
face that she had secured him as an ally.

"I think that might be managed, ma'am," he said in a tone that showed
her he was endeavoring to hide his gladness. "Yes, I think that could
be managed. There is certainly a young woman at the Hall--" and he
stopped.

Mrs. Conway helped him. "I may tell you, Mr. Johnson, that the foreman
hinted to Mr. Tallboys that he thought you and the upper housemaid
were likely one of these days to come together, and that is
principally why we spoke to you instead of to one of the others who
were there. We thought, you see, that she might probably be leaving
her place one of these days, and that perhaps this twenty-five pounds
might enable you and her to marry earlier than you otherwise would
have done. In that case, you see, it would suit us all. You and she
would, moreover, have the satisfaction of knowing that you were aiding
to right a great wrong, and to restore to those who have been
defrauded the property Mr. Penfold intended for them. What do you
say?"

"Well, ma'am, I think that, as you say, it would be doing the right
thing; and I don't deny that Martha and I have agreed to wait a year
or two, till we could save up enough between us for me to start on my
own account; for as long as I am a journeyman, and liable to lose my
work a