loor while she was examining the other contents of that secret
compartment; and, when she had been so startled by Mona's rap and upset
the table, it had been pushed underneath the draperies, while, during her
hurry in replacing the various articles, she had not noticed that it was
missing.

"Yes, I understand," she said, in a low, constrained, despairing tone.
"You have balked me at last, but," throwing back her head like some
animal suddenly brought to bay, "what are you going to do about it?"

"Only what is right and just, Mrs. Montague," courteously responded Mr.
Corbin.

"Right and just!" she repeated, with bitter emphasis. "That means, I
suppose, that you are going to compel me to give up my fortune."

"The law decrees that children shall have their father's property,
excepting, of course, a certain portion," said the lawyer.

"A paltry one-third," retorted Mrs. Montague, angrily.

"Yes, unless the heirs choose to allow something more to the widow.
Perhaps my client--"

Mrs. Montague sprang to her feet, her face flaming with sudden passion.

"Do you suppose I would ever humiliate myself enough to accept any favor
from Mona Forester's child?" she cried, as she paced the floor excitedly
back and forth, "Never! I will never be triumphed over. I will defy you
all! Oh, to be beaten thus!--it is more than I can bear."

Mrs. Montague's fury was something startling in its bitterness and
intensity, and the three gentlemen, witnessing it, could not help feeling
something of pity for the proud woman in her humiliation, even though
they were disgusted with her vindictiveness and selfishness.

"Defiance will avail you nothing, Mrs. Montague; an amicable spirit would
conduce far more to your advantage," Mr. Corbin remarked. "And now I
advise you," he added, "to quietly relinquish all right and title to this
fortune excepting, of course, your third, and trust to your husband's
daughter and her counsel to make you such allowance as they may consider
right. If you refuse to do this we shall be obliged to resort to the
courts to settle the question of inheritance."

"Take the matter into the courts, then," was the passionate retort. "I
will defy you all to the bitter end. And you," turning with blazing eyes
and crimson cheeks to Ray, "I suppose you imagined that you were to win
a princely inheritance with your promised wife; that when you found this
piece of parchment you would thus enable Mona Forester's child to triumph