where she
stood. Norma did not catch the exact words, but she caught her name, and
her heart stood still with the instinctive terror of the trapped. Annie
had not heard either evidently; she said "What, dear?" sympathetically.

"I asked what's Norma doing here--isn't she overdoing her relationship a
little?" Leslie said, languidly.

Norma's face burned, she could hardly breathe as she waited.

"Mama sent for her, for some reason," Annie answered, with a little
drawl.

"After all, she's a sort of cousin, isn't she?" Acton added.

"Oh, don't jump on me for _everything_ I say, Acton," Leslie said,
angrily. "My _goodness_----!"

"Chris says that Mama left her the Melrose Building--and I don't know
what besides!" Annie said. There was a moment of silence.

"I don't believe it! What for!" Leslie exclaimed, then, incredulously.
And after another silence she added, in a puzzled tone, "Do _you_
understand it, Aunt Annie?"

Evidently Annie answered with a glance or a shrug, for there was another
pause before Annie said:

"What I don't like about it, and what I do wish Mama had thought of, is
the way that people comment on a thing like that. It's not as if Norma
needed it; she has a husband to take care of her, now, and it makes us a
little ridiculous! One likes to feel that, at a time like this,
everything is to be done decently, at least--not enormous legacies to
comparative strangers----"

"I like Norma, we've all been kind to her," Leslie contributed, as
Annie's voice died listlessly away. "I've always made allowances for
her. But I confess that it was rather a surprise to find her here, one
of the family----! After all, we Melroses have always rather prided
ourselves on standing together, haven't we? If she wants to wear black
for Grandma, why, it makes no difference to _me_----"

"I suppose the will could be broken without any notoriety, Chris?" Annie
asked, in an undertone. Norma's heart turned sick. She had not supposed
that Chris was listening without protest to this conversation.

"No," she heard him say, briefly and definitely, "that's impossible!"

"It isn't the money----" Annie began. But Leslie interrupted with a
bitter little laugh.

"It may not be with you, Aunt Annie, but I assure you I wouldn't mind a
few extra thousands," she said.

"I think you get the Newport house, Leslie," Chris said, in a tone whose
dubiety only Norma could understand.

"The Newport house!" Leslie exclaimed. "Why, but do