marry her,
and to do that he must perform the one deed he had pledged himself never
to be tempted into: he must rebuild the wall. Otherwise the property would
pass into other hands.

Nothing could so injure the Howe estate as to have a poor farm next door.
Ellen of course knew that. Ah, it was a vicious document--that last Will
and Testament of Ellen Webster.

Mr. Benton's voice broke in upon Lucy's musings.

"The deceased," he added with a final grin of appreciation, "appoints Mr.
Elias Barnes as executor, _he being_," the lawyer quoted from the written
page, "_the meanest man I know_."

Thus did the voice of the dead speak from the confines of the grave! Death
had neither transformed nor weakened the intrepid hater. From her aunt's
coffin Lucy could seem to hear vindictive chuckles of revenge and hatred,
and a mist gathered before her eyes.

She had had no regrets for the loss of Ellen's body; but she could not but
lament with genuine grief the loss of her soul.

CHAPTER XVI

LUCY COMES TO A DECISION

Slowly Lucy drove homeward, her dreams of rosy wall papers and gay chintz
hangings shattered. Thrusting into insignificance these minor
considerations, however, was the thought of Martin Howe and what he would
say to the revelation of Ellen's cupidity.

She would not tell him about the will, on that she was determined. She
would not mention it to anybody. Instead she would go promptly to work
packing up her few possessions and putting the house in perfect order.
Fortunately it had so recently been cleaned that to prepare it for closing
would be a simple matter.

As for herself and Martin, the dupes of an old woman's vengeance, both of
them were of course blameless. Nevertheless, the present twist of Fate had
entirely changed their relation to one another.

When she had defied her aunt and voiced with such pride her love for the
man of her heart, it had been in a joyous faith that although he had not
made similar confession, he would ultimately do so. The possibility that
he was making of her affection a tool for vengeance had never come into
her mind until Ellen had put it there, and then with involuntary loyalty
she had instantly dismissed the suggestion as absurd. But here was a
different situation. She was no longer independent of circumstances. She
was penniless in the world, all the things that should have been hers
having been swept away by the malicious stroke of a pen. It was almost as
trag