st a half of the property quite as much as it did to her!

When she had arrived at this illumination she was in a great state of
excitement. She almost waked Archie from his alcoholic slumbers in the
neighboring room to tell him that he was not married to a rich woman--at
least to one as rich as he thought by a half. And the workman whom he
had insulted and discharged in his fury was really his superior, in
money as well as character, and might perhaps drive him out of
Highcourt, instead! But she decided to put off this ironical blow until
a more opportune time, when Archie was nagging her for money. He could
be too disagreeable in his present state.

Then she thought of breaking the astounding news to the stone mason
himself. She must do that the first thing in the morning. But presently
doubts began to rise in her mind. Of course, knowing nothing of law, she
resolved the problem by the very simple rules of thumb she was capable
of. These California Clarks, of whom the mason was one, undoubtedly
owned a half of Clark's Field,--in other words, of her estate,--for
Clark's Field had been sold for the most part and no longer belonged to
her. If so there would be only one half left for her and her child, and
she had good reason to fear that her half had considerably shrunken by
now, thanks to Archie's investments and their way of living, if it had
not wholly disappeared! What then? She would be poor, as poor as Tom
Clark was now. And it would all go to him--the thought made her smile.
But no, he had brothers and sisters, probably uncles and aunts and
cousins. He would have to share his half with them. And one of his
sisters was the sort of woman she had been taught to despise and abhor.
It was all a horrible tangle, which she felt herself incapable to see
through at once. She was not sure that she could tell Archie or even her
new cousin, anyway not until she had thought it out more clearly and
knew the case in all its bearings.

The truth was, perhaps, that Adelle's natural fund of egotism, which was
not small, had begun to work as soon as she realized that she might lose
her magic lamp altogether. It may be doubted that, if certain events had
not happened, Adelle ever would have risen to the point where she could
have told any one the truth as she was now convinced she knew it. For
the present she would put it off,--a few days. It was so much easier to
say nothing at all: the mason did not seem to suspect the truth. She