f-hand sort of way,
"you don't happen to know if Mr. Carboys ever made a will, do you? I am
aware, from what Mr. Narkom has told me of his circumstances, that he
really possessed nothing that would call for the execution of such a
document; but young men have odd fancies sometimes--particularly when
they become engaged--so it is just possible that he might have done such
a thing; that there was a ring or something of that sort he wanted to
make sure of your getting should anything happen to him. Of course, it
is an absurd suggestion, but--"

"It is not so absurd as you think, Mr. Headland," she interrupted. "As
it happens, Mr. Carboys did make a will. But that was a very long time
ago--in fact, before he knew me, so my name did not figure in it at all.
He once told me of the circumstances connected with it. It was executed
when he was about three-and-twenty. It appears that there were some
personal trinkets, relics of his more prosperous days: a set of jewelled
waistcoat buttons, a scarf-pin, a few choice books and things like that,
which he desired Mr. Van Nant to have in the event of his death (they
were then going to the Orient, and times there were troublous); so he
drew up a will, leaving everything that he might die possessed of to Mr.
Van Nant, and left the paper with the latter's solicitor when they bade
good-bye to England. So far as I know, that will still exists, Mr.
Headland; so"--here the faintest suggestion of a quiver got into her
voice--"if anything of a tragical nature had happened to him, and--and
the trinkets hadn't disappeared with him, Mr. Van Nant could claim them
all, and I should have not even one poor little token to cherish in
memory of him. And I am sure--I am very sure--that if he had known--if
he had thought--"

"Mary, for goodness' sake, don't begin to snivel!" chimed in her father
querulously. "It gets on my nerves. And you know very well how I am
suffering! Of course, it was most inconsiderate of Carboys not to
destroy that will as soon as you and he were engaged; but he knew that
marriage invalidates any will a man may have made previously, and--well,
you can't suppose that he ever expected things to turn out as they have
done. Besides, Van Nant would have seen that you got something to
treasure as a remembrance. He's a very decent chap, is Van Nant, Mr.
Headland, although my daughter has never appeared to think so. But
there's no arguing with a woman any way."

Cleek glanced at Narko