which alarmed you all."

When Catherine ceased speaking there was a profound silence for a
minute, which Mr. Fanshawe was the first to break as he said with a
peculiar intonation in his voice, "It is very strange, very
unaccountable," reechoing all our thoughts.

Now it happened that Mr. Fleet, our family lawyer, was among our guests
that Christmas-time, and since the discovery of the chest and bones had
taken a great interest in the whole affair. He now questioned and
cross-questioned Catherine, and seemed quite satisfied with the result.

"This would have made a fine case," said he, "if only it had been a
question of the right of succession, for any lawyer to make out; but
unfortunately the events are too long past to have any bearing upon the
present." (There Mr. Fleet was wrong, though we none of us knew it at
the time.)

We now all launched forth into conjectures and opinions, during which
Catherine lay still and weary upon the sofa. I saw this, and thought it
quite time to put an end to the day's adventures by suggesting a
retirement for the night, and we were soon all dispersed to dream of the
mysterious vision and discovery.

* * * * *

I think we were none of us sorry when morning dawned without any further
tragedy (by _us_, I mean the female part of the establishment).

When I came down to breakfast I found Mr. Fleet very active on the
subject of the night before.

"A surgeon ought to be immediately sent for to pronounce an opinion on
the contents of the chest," he said; and Dr. Driscoll presently came,
and after examining the bones minutely, decided that they were, as we
thought, those of two females, who might have been from one to two
hundred years dead.

Mr. Fleet next offered to decipher the will, for such he imagined the
parchment to be, and he and Mr. Fanshawe were closeted together for some
time.

When they at last appeared again, they looked much interested and
excited, and led me away to inform me of the result of their
examination.

They told me that the document had proved to be a will, but that there
was a circumstance connected with it which greatly added to the mystery
of the whole business. This was the mention of the name of L'Estrange. I
was, of course, as much surprised as they, and heard the will read with
great interest.

I cannot remember the technical terms in which it was expressed. Mr.
Fleet read me the translation he had made, for the ori