ase, Ralph, Mr. Penfold would have left his
fortune to his sisters. He was a man very averse to exerting his own
will, and I am sure that he submitted to, rather than liked, his
sisters' residence at the Hall. I know that he considered, and justly,
that they had once committed a cruel wrong upon him, and had in a way
spoiled his life. I question whether he really ever forgave them."

"I see, mother," Ralph said. "Well, now, about myself; I should think
there can be no occasion for me to continue in the army unless I
like?"

"I hope you won't like, Ralph. In the first place I want to have you
with me; and in the second, you will be a large landowner, and
property has its duties."

"Well, there is no necessity to decide about that at present. The
doctor said yesterday I should certainly get three months' sick leave
before I rejoined. By all we hear the fighting is at an end, and there
is no fear whatever that Napoleon will have it in his power to cause
trouble in the future. They will take care of that, whatever they do
with him. If there is going to be peace everywhere, I do not know that
I should care very much about staying in the army; but, as I said, we
need not decide at present."

Ten days later, Ralph was so far recovered that he was able to return
home with his mother. As soon as she informed him of her arrival at
Dover, Mr. Tallboys wrote to tell her that he had had an interview in
London with the Miss Penfolds' lawyer, who informed him that he had
instructions from his clients to examine the will, and if satisfied of
its genuineness, to offer no opposition whatever to its being proved.
Mr. Tallboys had thereupon shown him the will, and had no difficulty
in convincing him that it was the document he himself had drawn up,
and Mr. Penfold had signed in his presence.

The lawyer has placed all the deeds and documents relating to Mr.
Penfold's property in my hands, and, as I was of course before well
aware, my late client died worth a very considerable property in
addition to his large estates in this country. For the last twenty
years his income has exceeded his expenditure by an average of three
thousand a year, and as the surpluses have been judiciously invested,
and as the prices of all funds and stocks now stand vastly higher than
they did during the course of the long war, their total value now
amounts to something over a hundred and thirty thousand pounds.

"The property in this country was valued, at