ep this secret, even for an hour, when I have no right to its
possession, touches my conscience. Is it just? This will is not in my
favor. It does not even recognize my existence. It devises property,
of large value, in another line; and there may be heirs ready to take
possession, the moment its existence is made known to them. Am I not
intermeddling, unjustly, in the affairs of another?"

"But for you," I replied, "this will might never have seen the light. If
heirs exist, they can, therefore, have no just reason for complaint at
the brief delay to which, under the circumstances, you are, in
common justice, entitled. Your conscience may be over sensitive, Mrs.
Montgomery."

"I would rather it were over sensitive than obtuse," she said. "Worldly
possessions are desirable. They give us many advantages. We all desire
and cling to them. But they are dearly bought at the price of heavenly
possessions. What will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and
lose his own soul? Nothing! It were better for him to die like Lazarus.
No, Doctor, I am resolved in this matter to be simply just. If, in
justice and right, this estate comes into my hands, I will take the
wealth thankfully and use it as wisely as I can. But I will not throw
a single straw in the way of its passing to the legal heirs of my
brother's wife, if any are in existence and can be found."

"But you will keep this secret until Mr. Wallingford's return?" I urged.

"I do not see that wrong to any one can follow such a delay," she
answered. "Yes, I will keep the secret."

"And I will keep it also, even from my good Constance," said I, "until
your agent's return. The matter lies sacred between us."

CHAPTER XIV.

"Mrs. Dewey is at her father's," said my wife to me, one evening in
August, as we sat at the tea-table.

"Ah! have you seen her?" I was interested at once. Six months had
elapsed since Delia's wedding, and this was her first visit home; though
her mother had been twice down to New York, in company with the Squire,
who had business with the firm to which Ralph belonged. In fact, since
his marriage to Squire Floyd's daughter, young Dewey had prevailed upon
his father-in-law to make the house of Floyd, Lawson, Lee & Co., agents
for the entire product of his manufactory--an arrangement which the
Squire regarded as greatly to his advantage.

My question was answered in the affirmative.

"How is she?"

"Looking very well."

There was no wa