to
set the example of self-control. It is one of the noble instincts of
women that nothing more powerfully rouses them to struggle with their
own sorrow than the sight of a man's distress. She quietly dried her
tears; she quietly drew her chair round the table, so as to sit nearer
to him when she spoke again.

"I have been sadly broken, Mr. Pendril, by what has happened in this
house," she said, "or I should have borne what you have told me better
than I have borne it to-day. Will you let me ask one question before
you go on? My heart aches for the children of my love--more than ever my
children now. Is there no hope for their future? Are they left with no
prospect but poverty before them?"

The lawyer hesitated before he answered the question.

"They are left dependent," he said, at last, "on the justice and the
mercy of a stranger."

"Through the misfortune of their birth?"

"Through the misfortunes which have followed the marriage of their
parents."

With that startling answer he rose, took up the will from the floor, and
restored it to its former position on the table between them.

"I can only place the truth before you," he resumed, "in one plain
form of words. The marriage has destroyed this will, and has left Mr.
Vanstone's daughters dependent on their uncle."

As he spoke, the breeze stirred again among the shrubs under the window.

"On their uncle?" repeated Miss Garth. She considered for a moment, and
laid her hand suddenly on Mr. Pendril's arm. "Not on Michael Vanstone!"

"Yes: on Michael Vanstone."

Miss Garth's hand still mechanically grasped the lawyer's arm. Her whole
mind was absorbed in the effort to realize the discovery which had now
burst on her.

"Dependent on Michael Vanstone!" she said to herself. "Dependent on
their father's bitterest enemy? How can it be?"

"Give me your attention for a few minutes more," said Mr. Pendril, "and
you shall hear. The sooner we can bring this painful interview to a
close, the sooner I can open communications with Mr. Michael Vanstone,
and the sooner you will know what he decides on doing for his brother's
orphan daughters. I repeat to you that they are absolutely dependent
on him. You will most readily understand how and why, if we take up the
chain of events where we last left it--at the period of Mr. and Mrs.
Vanstone's marriage."

"One moment, sir," said Miss Garth. "Were you in the secret of that
marriage at the time when it took place?"

"U