erview may be? I have only seen Mr. Pendril when he has
come here on former visits: I have no claim to justify me in questioning
him. Will you look at the letter again? Do you think it implies that Mr.
Vanstone has never made a will?"

"I think it can hardly imply that," said one of the doctors. "But, even
supposing Mr. Vanstone to have died intestate, the law takes due care of
the interests of his widow and his children--"

"Would it do so," interposed the other medical man, "if the property
happened to be in land?"

"I am not sure in that case. Do you happen to know, Miss Garth, whether
Mr. Vanstone's property was in money or in land?"

"In money," replied Miss Garth. "I have heard him say so on more than
one occasion."

"Then I can relieve your mind by speaking from my own experience. The
law, if he has died intestate, gives a third of his property to his
widow, and divides the rest equally among his children."

"But if Mrs. Vanstone--"

"If Mrs. Vanstone should die," pursued the doctor, completing the
question which Miss Garth had not the heart to conclude for herself, "I
believe I am right in telling you that the property would, as a matter
of legal course, go to the children. Whatever necessity there may be
for the interview which Mr. Pendril requests, I can see no reason for
connecting it with the question of Mr. Vanstone's presumed intestacy.
But, by all means, put the question, for the satisfaction of your own
mind, to Mr. Pendril himself."

Miss Garth withdrew to take the course which the doctor advised. After
communicating to Mr. Pendril the medical decision which, thus far,
refused him the interview that he sought, she added a brief statement of
the legal question she had put to the doctors; and hinted delicately
at her natural anxiety to be informed of the motives which had led the
lawyer to make his request. The answer she received was guarded in the
extreme: it did not impress her with a favorable opinion of Mr. Pendril.
He confirmed the doctors' interpretation of the law in general terms
only; expressed his intention of waiting at the cottage in the hope that
a change for the better might yet enable Mrs. Vanstone to see him; and
closed his letter without the slightest explanation of his motives, and
without a word of reference to the question of the existence, or the
non-existence, of Mr. Vanstone's will.

The marked caution of the lawyer's reply dwelt uneasily on Miss Garth's
mind, until the