should, in fact, be going over to the enemy.
We could not take their money and even tacitly connive in her efforts
to find the will."

"I agree with you entirely, James. It would be impossible; only I do
wish you had said all this before letting me be so foolish as to say
that I thought we ought to take it."

"You didn't say so, dear," Mr. Withers said smiling. "You only gave
expression to the first natural thought of a mother that it would be a
nice thing for Mabel. You had given the matter no further
consideration than that, and I was quite sure that as soon as you
thought the matter over you would see it in the same light that I do.
But I think that before we send off our reply we should put the matter
before Mabel herself. I have no doubt whatever what her answer will
be, but at the same time she ought to know of the offer which has been
made to her."

CHAPTER IX.

MR. TALLBOYS' VISITOR.

Mr. Withers was fully justified in his conviction that there need be
no doubt as to the view Mabel would take of the Miss Penfold's offer.
The girl had hitherto been in entire ignorance both as to the will
being missing, and of the interest she had in it. She was now called
in from the garden, and was much surprised when her father told her to
sit down, as he and her mother wished to have a serious talk with her.

"Do you know, my little Mabel," he began, "that you have had a narrow
escape of being an heiress?"

"An heiress, papa! Do you mean of having a lot of money?"

"Yes, of coming in some day to a fortune. Mr. Penfold some time ago
confided to your mother and me his intention of dividing his property
equally between Ralph Conway and yourself."

"What! all the Penfold estates, papa, and the house and everything?"

"Yes, my dear. Everything, including the large sum of money that has
accumulated during the years Mr. Penfold has not been spending a third
of his income."

"Then if he meant that, papa, how is it that I am not going to be an
heiress?"

"Simply, my dear, because the will by which Mr. Penfold left the
property to you and Ralph is missing."

Mr. Withers then told the whole story of the loss of the will, the
search that had been made for it, and the strong grounds there were
for believing in the existence of some secret place in the Hall, and
that this place of concealment was known to Mr. Penfold's sisters.

"But they surely could never be so wicked as that, papa. They have
always seemed to li