So these women, who had as she believed ruined her life and Herbert’s, were now going to attack her son and rob him of his rights.  They should not do it if she could help it.  Never!  Mary Vernon had been a high-spirited girl, and, although those who had only known her through her widowhood would have taken her for a gentle and quiet woman, whose thoughts were entirely wrapped up in her boy, the old spirit was alive yet, as with head thrown back, and an angry flush on her cheeks, she declared to herself that she would defend Ralph’s rights to the last.  How or in what manner she did not ask; she only knew that those who would defraud him were her old enemies.

Had it been otherwise the fact that they were Herbert’s sisters would have softened her toward them; now that fact only added to the hostility she bore them.  They, his nearest relations of blood, had ruined his life; now they would defeat his dying wishes.  It should not be if she could help it.  She would fight against it to the last day of her life.  There was of course nothing to be done yet.  Nothing until she heard again.  Nothing until she knew that the discovery of the will was given up as hopeless.  Then it would be time for her to do something.

The thought barely occurred to her that the loss of this will might make material difference in her own circumstances, and that the allowance Herbert Penfold had made her, and which he had doubtless intended she should continue to receive, would cease.  That was so secondary a consideration that it at present gave her no trouble.  It was of Ralph she thought.  Of Ralph and Herbert.  Were the plans that the latter had made—­the plans that had given happiness to the last year of the life of him who had known so little happiness—­to be shattered?  This to her mind was even more than the loss that Ralph would suffer.

“They may have destroyed the will,” she said at last; “but if not I will find it, if it takes me all my life to do so.”

A week later two letters arrived.  The one was from Mrs. Withers.  The will had not been found.  Mr. Tallboys had searched in vain.  Every cabinet and drawer in the house had been ransacked.  No signs whatever had been found of the will.

“Mr. Tallboys is perfectly convinced that it must be hidden in some altogether exceptional place.  The will was not a bulky document, and might have been stowed away in a comparatively small hiding-place, such as a secret drawer in a cabinet; but the leases that are also missing are bulky, and would take up so large a space that he is convinced that had a secret hiding-place sufficiently large to hold them existed in any of the articles of furniture he has searched he should have discovered it.

“Of course, my dear Mrs. Conway, we feel this matter personally, as our Mabel was as you know made joint-heiress with your Ralph of Herbert’s property.  We cannot but feel, however, that the loss is greater in your case than in ours.  Mabel was never informed of Herbert’s intentions toward her, and although we should of course have been glad to know that our child had such brilliant prospects, the loss of them will not we may hope in any way affect her happiness.  In the case of your son it is different, and his prospects in life will of course be seriously affected by the loss, and my husband begs me to express to you his very deep regret at this.