if not I hardly know what steps had best be
taken. If those Penfold women have made up their minds that this
will shall not see the light they are likely to carry it through
to the end. My husband quite agreed with Mr. Tallboys about that,
and so do I. I have never been able to abide them, though, as my
husband says, they are good women in many respects, and always
ready to help in parish matters. Still I can't abide them, nor I
am sure have you any reason to do so; for when I and my husband
first came here we learned a good deal of the part they had played
in a certain matter, and that of course set me altogether against
them.

"Of course, my dear Mrs. Conway, I do not wish to alarm you about
the will; still you ought to know how things stand, and my husband
this morning asked me to tell you all there was to tell. I hope in
a few days to be able to write and give you better news. Things
may not be as they fear."

Mrs. Conway sat for a long time with this letter before her. She had
not read it straight through, but after glancing at the first few
lines that told of the death of Herbert Penfold she had laid it aside,
and it was a long time before she took it up again. He had been the
love of her youth; and although he had seemingly gone for so many
years out of her life, she knew that when she had found how he had all
this time watched over her and so delicately aided her, and that for
her sake he was going to make Ralph his heir, her old feeling had been
revived. Not that she had any thought that the past would ever return.
His letters indeed had shown that he regarded his life as approaching
its end; but since the receipt of that letter she had always thought
of him with a tender affection as one who might have been her husband
had not either evil fate or malice stepped in to prevent it.

The fortnight they had spent in London had brought them very close
together. He had assumed the footing of a brother, but she had felt
that pleasant and kind as he was to all the rest of the party it was
for her sake alone that this festivity had been arranged. They had had
but one talk together alone, and she had then said that she hoped the
expressions he had used in his letter to her with reference to his
health were not altogether justified, for he seemed so bright and
well. He had shaken his head quietly and said:

"It is just as well that you should know, Mary. I h