ous a deed as to destroy
a will? The lawyer's hair stood almost on end as he spoke of the
atrocity; but yet he believed it. Would a respectable newspaper such
as the _Carmarthen Herald_ commit itself to such a course without the
strongest assurance? What was it to the _Carmarthen Herald_? Did not
the very continuance of the articles make it clear that the readers
of the paper were in accordance with the writer? Would the public of
Carmarthen sympathise in such an attack without the strongest ground?
He, the attorney, fully believed in Cousin Henry's guilt; but he was
not on that account sanguine as to the proof. If, during his sojourn
at Llanfeare, either immediately before the old squire's death or
after it, but before the funeral, he had been enabled to lay his hand
upon the will and destroy it, what hope would there be of evidence
of such guilt? As to that idea of forcing the man to tell such a
tale against himself by the torment of cross-examination, he did not
believe it at all. A man who had been strong enough to destroy a will
would be too strong for that. Perhaps he thought that any man would
be too strong, not having known Cousin Henry. Among all the possible
chances which occurred to his mind,--and his mind at this time was
greatly filled with such considerations,--nothing like the truth
suggested itself to him. His heart was tormented by the idea that
the property had been stolen from his child, that the glory of being
father-in-law to Llanfeare had been filched from himself, and that
no hope for redress remained. He sympathised altogether with the
newspaper. He felt grateful to the newspaper. He declared the editor
to be a man specially noble and brave in his calling. But he did not
believe that the newspaper would do any good either to him or to
Isabel.

Mr Owen doubted altogether the righteousness of the proceeding as
regarded the newspaper. As far as he could see there was no evidence
against Cousin Henry. There seemed to him to be an injustice in
accusing a man of a great crime, simply because the crime might have
been possible, and would, if committed, have been beneficial to the
criminal. That plan of frightening the man into self-accusation by
the terrors of cross-examination was distasteful to him. He would not
sympathise with the newspaper. But still he found himself compelled
to retreat from that affectation of certainty in regard to Isabel
which he had assumed when he knew only that the will had