“I am quite at your service, madam.”

“I wanted to see you before I went to the office with the keys of his safe.”

“Perhaps,” said Mr. Sage, “I could spare you that trouble.”

“Oh no; his secretary thought I had better come myself, if I could.”

“Very well,” said Mr. Sage.

Carmen hesitated a moment, and then said, in an inquiring tone, “I suppose the first thing is the will.  He told me long ago that his will was made.  I suppose it is in the safe.  Didn’t you draw it, Mr. Sage?”

“Oh yes,” the lawyer replied, leaning back in his chair, “I drew that; a long time ago; shortly after your marriage.  And about a year ago I drew another one.  Did he ever speak of that?”

“No,” Carmen replied, with a steady voice, but trembling inwardly at her narrow escape.

“I wonder,” continued Mr. Sage, “if it was ever executed?  He took it, and said he would think it over.”

“Executed?” queried Carmen, looking up.  “How do you mean, before a magistrate?”

“Oh, no; signed and witnessed.  It is very simple.  The law requires two witnesses; the testator and the witnesses must declare that they sign in the presence of each other.  The witnesses prove the will, or, if they are dead, their signatures can be proved.  I was one of the witnesses of the first will, and a clerk of Henderson’s, who is still in his office, was the other.”

“The last one is probably in the safe if it was executed.”

“Probably,” the lawyer assented.  “If not, you’d better look for it in the house.”

“Of course.  Whether it exists or not, I want to carry out my husband’s intention,” Carmen said, sweetly.  “Have you any memorandum of it?”

“I think so, somewhere, but the leading provisions are in my mind.  It would astonish the public.”

“Why?” asked Carmen.

“Well, the property was greater than any of us supposed, and—­perhaps I ought not to speak to you of this now, Mrs. Henderson.”

“I think I have a right to know what my husband’s last wishes were,” Carmen answered, firmly.

“Well, he had a great scheme.  The greater part of his property after the large legacies—­” The lawyer saw that Carmen looked pale, and he hesitated a moment, and then said, in a cheery manner:  “Oh, I assure you, madam, that this will gave you a great fortune; all the establishment, and a very great fortune.  But the residue was in trust for the building and endowment of an Industrial School on the East Side, with a great library and a reading-room, all to be free.  It was a great scheme, and carefully worked out.”

“I am so glad to know this,” said Carmen.  “Was there anything else?”

“Only some legacies.”  And Mr. Sage went on, trying to recall details that his attentive listener already knew.  There were legacies to some of his relatives in New Hampshire, and there was a fund, quite a handsome fund, for the poor of the city, called the “Margaret Fund.”  And there was something also for a relative of the late Mrs. Henderson.