an if the will in dispute had been an ordinary one in
favour of his relations."

"Oh! it is horrible--too horrible!" cried Rose. "There must be some
mistake. That young girl I met at Groombridge! Even if the poor mother
were really wicked, that girl cannot have carried it on!"

Rose had leant her elbows on the table, and clasped her white hands
tightly and then covered her face with them for a moment.

"I can't believe it. I feel there is some terrible mistake, and we might
ruin this girl's life. It would be ill-gotten, unblest wealth."

The lawyer noted with surprise that these two--Sir Edmund and Lady
Rose--were not more anxious for wealth, rather less so, since both had
known comparative poverty.

"I don't believe anyone is the better for living on fraud, Lady Rose,
and I don't believe you have any right to drop the case. You have to
think of Sir David's good name and of his wishes. The will you are
suffering from was a portentous wrong."

Rose trembled. Had she not felt it the most awful, the most portentous
wrong? Had it not burnt deep miserable wounds in her soul? The whole
horror of the desecration of her married life had been revealed to her
in this room by this man. Did she need that he should tell her what that
misery had been? The words he had used then were as well known to her as
the words he had used to-day.

Rose said after a longer pause, and with slight hesitation:

"And Sir Edmund does not know what Nurse Edith told you? He has not seen
the copy of the will?"

"No; I wanted him to, but he refused to hear any more on the subject. I
cannot understand it at all." He spoke with considerable irritation, his
big forehead contracted with a deep frown. "Sir Edmund, after making the
guess on which the whole thing has turned, after discovering Akers and
Stock, after spending large sums in the necessary work----"

"Has he spent much money?" Rose flushed deeply.

But Mr. Murray, who usually had more tact, was now too full of his
grievance to pause.

"He spent money as long as he could, and now takes no more interest in
the matter on the ground that he can no longer be of any use. Why, it
was his judgment we wanted, his perceptions; no one could be of more use
than Sir Edmund!"

"And who is paying the expenses now?"

"Ah! that is the reason why I wished to see you as soon as possible. I
felt that I could not, without your approval, continue as we are now.
The last cheque from Sir Edmund covered all