ossessed to his beloved and only sister, Elizabeth, her heirs and
assigns forever.

"Father!" Hannah said, with a trembling voice, as she finished reading
aloud this will, "I am sure that this is his sister's picture, and we
have a duty to do. We must find Elizabeth Rogers, and put her in
possession of her own, this gold in the box, and whatever else he may
have owned in Wales. He spoke of shares in some mines or quarries. These
all belong to his sister, and we must not defraud her; those blue eyes
would haunt me forever. What shall we do?"

She was looking earnestly at her father, over whose face there came a
sudden pallor, and a hard, bitter expression, as he answered her:

"Find her! Of course! Advertise! go to Wales, if necessary, in search of
her, or get a lawyer to do it! Break your vow; tell the whole truth, as
you would have to, in order to establish his death; and get me hanged!
That would be the result of restitution."

"Oh, father," Hannah cried in terror. "Is there no other way? If I find
this woman and give her her own, must I tell her the whole truth? Will
it not be enough if I say he is dead, that I saw him die, that I helped
to lay him in his coffin? I would not mention you, or that I had a
father. Surely she would be satisfied."

"Yes, _she_ might, but not the law. I do not understand the ins and outs
myself, there are so many questions necessary to make a thing legal, but
this I am sure of; the whole thing would be ripped up, and I hanged, as
I told you. No, Hannah, you cannot find this woman while I live, which,
please God, may not be long. When I am gone, find her, if you like, but
you must shield me. Remember your vow, and--and--swear again, not to
move in the matter while I live."

He was growing so excited with this new fear that his daughter shrank
from him in alarm, and at last yielding to his importunities took
another oath of secrecy, which doomed the blue-eyed woman in Wales to a
life of poverty, if such now were her portion.

"But what shall we do with this money?" Hannah asked.

And her father replied:

"Keep it until you can restore it to its rightful owner without harm to
me. Elizabeth may never get it, but her heirs, some child yet unborn,
may be made rich by you, one day, who knows?"

Yes, some child then unborn might one day be richer for this crime, but
that did not comfort Hannah, now, and the future held no gleam of hope
or happiness for her, as she put the papers, and th