“Do you know, my little Mabel,” he began, “that you have had a narrow escape of being an heiress?”

“An heiress, papa!  Do you mean of having a lot of money?”

“Yes, of coming in some day to a fortune.  Mr. Penfold some time ago confided to your mother and me his intention of dividing his property equally between Ralph Conway and yourself.”

“What! all the Penfold estates, papa, and the house and everything?”

“Yes, my dear.  Everything, including the large sum of money that has accumulated during the years Mr. Penfold has not been spending a third of his income.”

“Then if he meant that, papa, how is it that I am not going to be an heiress?”

“Simply, my dear, because the will by which Mr. Penfold left the property to you and Ralph is missing.”

Mr. Withers then told the whole story of the loss of the will, the search that had been made for it, and the strong grounds there were for believing in the existence of some secret place in the Hall, and that this place of concealment was known to Mr. Penfold’s sisters.

“But they surely could never be so wicked as that, papa.  They have always seemed to like me—­not very much, you know, because they thought I wasn’t quiet and ladylike enough.  Still I don’t think they really disliked me.”

“No, I think in their way they liked you, Mabel; and perhaps if Mr. Penfold had half left his property to you, divided the other half between them the will would have been found.  But they certainly did not like Ralph Conway.  They disliked him partly no doubt for himself, but principally on account of a wrong which I believe they once did to his mother.  Now, it is in human nature, Mabel, that you may forgive a wrong done to you, but it is very hard to forgive a person you have wronged.  Anyhow, I am convinced that it was more to prevent Mrs. Conway’s son from getting this money than to get it themselves that they have concealed this will, or rather that they refuse to point out its place of concealment.”

“But it does seem hard, papa, that Mr. Penfold should have left everything to Ralph and me and nothing to his sisters.”

“The Miss Penfolds have a very comfortable income of their own, Mabel, and their brother might very well have thought there was no occasion for them to have more; beside, although they lived in his house, and indeed managed it and him, Mr. Penfold had, I know, strong reason to believe that they had ruined his life.  But this is a matter into which we need not go.  Well, Mabel, the Miss Penfolds have just given a proof that they do not dislike you.  Now I will read you this letter, because I think you ought to know it has been written, and I will then tell you the reasons why your mother and I think that the offer cannot be accepted.”

Mabel listened in silence until her father had finished the arguments he had used with his wife, with the exception only of that relating to the Miss Penfolds’ motives in putting in the condition concerning Mabel’s marriage.  When he ceased speaking she exclaimed indignantly, “Of course, papa, we could not take the money, not if it were ten times as much!  Why, we could not look Mrs. Conway and Ralph in the face again!  Beside, how could we speak to people one believes to have done such a wicked thing?”