t's benefit. 'It is not
my wish'--these words followed the directions--'to put the said Richard
Mutimer above the need of supporting himself by honest work, but only
to aid him to make use of the abilities which I understand he possesses,
and to become a credit to the class to which he belongs.'

The executors were Hubert Eldon himself and the lawyer Mr. Yottle.

A man of the world brought face to face with startling revelations
of this kind naturally turns at once to thought of technicalities,
evasions, compromises. Adela's simpler mind fixed itself upon the plain
sense of the will; that meant restitution to the uttermost farthing. For
more than two years Hubert Eldon had been kept out of his possessions;
others had been using them, and lavishly. Would it be possible for her
husband to restore? He must have expended great sums, and of his own he
had not a penny.

Thought for herself came last. Mutimer must abandon Wanley, and whither
he went, thither must she go also. Their income would be a hundred and
seven pounds. Her husband became once more a working man. Doubtless he
would return to London; their home would be a poor one, like that of
ordinary working folk.

How would he bear it? How would he take this from _her_?

Fear crept insidiously about her heart, though she fought to banish
it. It was a fear of the instinct, clinging to trifles in the memory,
feeding upon tones, glances, the impressions of forgotten moments. She
was conscious that here at length was the crucial test of her husband's
nature, and in spite of every generous impulse she dreaded the issue.
To that dread she durst not abandon herself; to let it grow even for an
instant cost her a sensation of faintness, a desire to flee for cover
to those who would naturally protect her. To give up all--and to Hubert
Eldon! She recalled his voice when the other day he spoke of Hubert.
He had not since recurred to the subject, but his manner still bore the
significance with which that conversation had invested it. No dream of
suspicions on his part had come to her, but it was enough that something
had happened to intensify his dislike of Hubert. Of her many fears, here
was one which couched dark and shapeless in the background.

A feeble woman would have chosen anyone--her mother, her brother--rather
than Mutimer himself for the first participant in such a discovery.
Adela was not feeble, and the very danger, though it might chill her
senses, nerved her so