With hurried pace they returned to the village, scarcely stopping to take breath until they reached Mr. Hardwick’s house.  It was no vain hope, then!  It was true!  The schemes of the step-mother would be frustrated.  The odious control of Squire Clamp would end.  Mark began to read the will, then stopped, embraced his cousins and Mildred by turns, then read again.  He was beside himself with joy.

All were too much excited to sleep; and when the first transports of surprise were over, they naturally inquired after the unfortunate girl.  He had found her, after great difficulty, in a miserable garret.  The surmises of the villagers were correct.  She was ruined, heart-broken.  Dissipation, exposure, and all the frightful influences of her wretched life had brought on a fever, and now, destitute and forsaken, she was left by those who had made merchandise of her beauty, to die.  He learned from Lucy what she knew of the affair of the will.  She became satisfied, soon after Mr. Kinloch’s death, that some wrong was intended, and she watched her mistress.  Then Squire Clamp had induced her by threats and bribes to get for him the papers.  As she took them out of the desk, one, larger than the rest, and with several seals, attracted her attention.  She felt quite sure it was Mr. Kinloch’s will; so she secreted it and gave the lawyer the rest.  The Monday afternoon following, she took the will to her grandmother’s and put it under a plank in the floor.  Squire Clamp, strangely enough, chanced to stop just as she had hidden it.  He gave her back the papers, as she supposed, and she replaced them in the secretary.  On her way home she fell in with Hugh,—­a day neither of them would ever forget.

The lawyer, who had counted on an easy victory over Mr. Alford, was greatly surprised, the next day, to see him accompanied by Mark, as he came into court; he had not heard of the young man’s return.  Besides, their unmistakable air of confidence and exultation caused him some misgivings.  But he was boldness itself, compared with his wife.  Her face was bloodless, her hands tremulous, and her expression like that of one ready to faint.  Imagine the horror with which she saw the production of the will, and then the proof by the only surviving witness, brought to court from his residence in a neighboring town!  The letters of administration were revoked, and Mr. Alford, one of the executors, was appointed Mildred’s guardian.  Completely baffled, dumb and despairing, Squire Clamp and his bride left the room and drove homeward.  A pleasant topic for conversation they had by the way, each accusing the other of duplicity, treachery, and folly!  The will provided that she should receive an annuity of one thousand dollars during her widowhood; so that the Squire, by wedding her, had a new incumbrance without any addition to his resources; a bad bargain, decidedly, he thought.  She, on the other hand, had thrown away her sure dependence, in the hope of retaining the control of the whole estate; for when she consented to marry Clamp, she had no doubt that he had possession of the will and would, of course, keep it concealed.  Seldom it is that both parties to a transaction are so overreached.