“Well, Mr. Tallboys, no doubt you are thinking that you might as well have expressed this opinion to me on paper, and that I have troubled myself very unnecessarily in making this journey to have it from your own lips.”

“Well, yes, Mrs. Conway, I do not deny that this was in my mind.”

“It would have been useless for me to make the journey had this been all, Mr. Tallboys.  I am very glad to have heard your opinion, which agrees exactly with that which I myself have formed, but it was scarcely with the object of eliciting it that I have made this journey.  We will now proceed to that part of the subject.  We agree that the will is probably still in existence, and that it is hidden somewhere about the Hall.  The next question is, how is it to be found?”

“Ah! that is a very difficult question indeed, Mrs. Conway.”

“Yes, it is difficult, but not, I think, impossible.  You have done your best, Mr. Tallboys, and have failed.  You have no further suggestion to offer, no plan that occurs to you by which you might discover it?”

“None whatever,” Mr. Tallboys said decidedly.  “I have done all that I could do; and have, in fact, dismissed the question altogether from my mind.  I had the authority of the court to search, and I have searched very fully, and have reported my failure to the court.  The power to search would certainly not be renewed unless upon some very strong grounds indeed.”

“I suppose not, Mr. Tallboys; that is what I expected.  Well, it seems to me that you having done all in your power for us, your clients, and having now relinquished your search, it is time for us, or some of us, to take the matter in hand."’

Mr. Tallboys looked surprised.

“I do not quite understand, Mrs. Conway, how you can take it in hand.”

“No?  Well, I can tell you, Mr. Tallboys, that I am going to do so.  I am not going to sit down quietly and see my son robbed of his inheritance.  I have quite made up my mind to devote my life to this matter, and I have come, not to ask your advice—­for I dare say you would try to dissuade me, and my resolution is unalterable—­but to ask you to give me what aid you can in the matter.”

“I shall be glad to give you aid in any way, Mrs. Conway, if you will point out to me the direction in which my assistance can be of use.  I suppose you have formed some sort of plan, for I own that I can see no direction whatever in which you can set about the matter.”

“My intention is, Mr. Tallboys, to search for this hiding-place myself.”

Mr. Tallboys raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“To search yourself, Mrs. Conway!  But how do you propose to gain admittance to the Hall, and how, even supposing that you gain admittance, do you propose to do more than we have done, or even so much; because any fresh disturbance of the fabric of the house would be out of the question?”