edge, keeping the lantern down.

"Your father--yes. But you have seen to-day what that may come to. He
has always held you under his hand. Paul has been the old man's
favorite."

"No doubt of that." Hugh crept close to the lawyer. He was wrestling in
the coil of a tragic temptation.

"If he recovers consciousness, he may be tempted to recognize as his own
his wife's illegitimate son. That"--the low tone was one of withering
irony--"will keep her from dishonor, and you from the estates."

"At least he is my brother--my mother's son. If my father wishes to
provide for him, God forbid that we should prevent."

Once more the half-smothered laugh came through the darkness.

"You have missed your vocation, Mr. Ritson. Believe me, the Gospel has
lost a fervent advocate. Perhaps you would like to pray for this good
brother; perhaps you would consider it safe to drop on your knee and
say, 'My good brother that should be, who has ever loved me, whom I have
ever loved, take here my fortune, and leave me until death a penniless
dependent on the lands that are mine by right of birth.'"

Hugh Ritson's breath came in gusts through his quivering, unseen lips.

"Bonnithorne, it cannot be--it is mere coincidence, seductive, damning
coincidence. My mother knows all. If it were true that Paul was the son
of Lowther, she would know that Paul and Greta must be half-brother and
half-sister. She would stop their unnatural union."

"And do you think I have waited until now to sound that shoal water with
a cautious plummet? Your mother is as ignorant of the propinquity as
Greta herself. Lowther was dead before your family settled in Newlands.
The families never once came together while the widow lived. And now not
a relative survives who can tell the story."

"Parson Christian?" said Hugh Ritson.

"A great child just out of swaddling-clothes!"

"Then the secret rests with you and me, Bonnithorne?"

"Who else? The marriage must not come off. Greta is Paul's half-sister,
but she is no relative of yours--"

"You are right, Bonnithorne," Hugh Ritson broke in; "the marriage is
against nature."

"And the first step toward stopping it is to stop the will."

"Then why are you here?"

"To make sure that there is no will already. You have satisfied me, and
now I go."

There was a pause.

"Who shall say that I am acting a base part?" said Hugh, in an eager
tone.

"Who indeed?"

"Nature itself is on my side."

The man was conque