he thus addressed
him, "Some two years since I informed you by letter of the existence of
a will in which the late baronet, after paying a gratuity of five
thousand pounds to Arthur Carlton, left Miss Effingham sole heiress. In
that will the name of Ralph Coleman does not appear. If this document be
read to-morrow," she continued after a slight pause, "Vellenaux is lost
to you forever."

"But, my dear madam," he replied, "among the late baronet's papers will,
doubtless, be found a codicil in my behalf, in fact my cousin distinctly
promised me that he would make a suitable provision for the successor to
the title."

"And so he would have done had he lived long enough to complete it," was
the lady's quiet reply.

"You do not mean to say that you are certain Sir Jasper made no such
provision," enquired the lawyer in a quick and excited tone.

"No document of that kind had been executed prior to the baronet's
death," she boldly asserted, advancing towards him. "Now listen to me:
providing the will in question be not forthcoming after the funeral, the
law will declare you heir to the estate. Now, if you swear to me by all
that you hold most sacred, that you will allow me one thousand per annum
and a suite of apartments at Vellenaux so long as I shall live, no will
shall appear, and within one hour after the body of the late Sir Jasper
has been consigned to the tomb, you shall become Sir Ralph Coleman and
master of Vellenaux and its broad lands."

"But," was the cautious reply of the wily lawyer, "how know I that any
will has been made or that the Baronet has not kept faith with me. Your
word is all that I have to depend on for the truth or falsity of the
statement." He knew her to be an unscrupulous woman, but shrewd withal,
and could not bring himself to believe that she would compromise herself
so far as to have fraudulently possessed herself of, Sir Jasper's
papers, yet her language indicated very strongly that something of the
kind was the case.

"If she really has them," he thought, "one thousand per annum would not
be too large a sum to purchase her silence concerning them; and as the
bargain would be a verbal one, and unknown to any but ourselves, she
could not hereafter, by any disclosures that she might make, convict me
as an accomplice to the transaction." These thoughts flashed through his
mind ere she again spoke.

"Your words, sir, though not complimentary to me, I can excuse, on
account of the peculiar