und, think it well over. You may be
right in your opinion of this young lady, but just fancy the position.
There is a fortune of at least L20,000 a year on the one hand, and on
the other, absolute poverty. For do you suppose that, if it were in the
last will which Akers and Stock witnessed on board ship, and there were
any provision in it for Madame Danterre, Sir David Bright would have
left capital absolutely in her possession? No: the probability is--I am,
of course, always supposing your original notion to be true--that the
girl has this choice of immense wealth practically unquestioned by the
world which has settled down to the fact that Sir David left his money
to Madame Danterre; or, on the other hand, extreme poverty (she
inherited some L2,000 from her father) and public disgrace. Mind you,
she would have to announce that her mother was a criminal, and she
would, in this just and high-minded world of ours, pass under a cloud
herself. A few, only a very few, would in the least appreciate her
conduct."

Sir Edmund was miserably uncomfortable, intensely averse to the results
of what he had done. In drawing his mesh of righteous intrigue round the
mother he had never realised this situation. For the moment he wished
himself well out of it all.

"There is one other point," he said. "Are we quite sure that Dr. Larrone
did not know what was in the box? Is it not just possible that something
was taken out of it before it was given to Miss Dexter? He must have
known there was a large legacy to himself; it was against his interests
that Madame Danterre's will should be set aside. Also, it would not be a
very comfortable situation for him if it turned out that he had been the
intimate friend and highly-paid physician of a criminal."

"That last motive fits the character of the man, according to Pietrino,
better than the first," said Mr. Murray. "Well, we must see; we must
wait and see whether he accepts his legacy. But before that must come
the publication of Madame Danterre's will."

Edmund drove back from the city absorbed in the thought of Molly, in
comparing his different impressions of her at different stages of their
acquaintance. He had spoken so firmly and undoubtingly to Murray. His
first thought had been one of simple indignation, and yet--But no! he
remembered her simplicity in speaking of her mother's letter; he could
see her now with the gentle, pathetic look on her face as she told him
of her offering to g