and you're reading it all out of your own head; I know you are." "You shall look and see for yourself, Mrs. Dowlas, if that is your opinion." And Mr. Lewis held the paper full before her face, at the same time keeping it firmly grasped in his own hands. If he did so to prevent her from seizing and tearing it in pieces, nobody, beholding her, could have considered the precaution as libellous and absurd. Perhaps there was a little malice in the tone with which he asked her, "Well, Mrs. Dowlas, now what do you say? Is it as I read it? You can set me right if I am wrong." "I don't care! It's a forgery!- a forgery, and you're at the bottom of it: you're the door of it, and I'll have you hung!" "By all means, Mrs. Dowlas, if you can persuade a judge and jury to take your view of the matter. Meantime, and until you have proof of such a thing, you are committing yourself to a somewhat grave accusation." I beg of you," here interposed Mr. Dowlas-"I beg of you, sir, to overlook my wife's somewhat hasty expressions. It has it has taken her quite by surprise." 66 child for her; that the story of its having been born dead had been given out as a means of ridding her from vexatious inquiries; that the child now grown to the verge of womanhood had been sent to her rightful mother (whether to abide with her or not), and I doubt if Owen Gryffyth himself was ever aware of much more. Mrs. Roberts, for aught her Welsh acquaintances could tell, might have been fully aware all along of the progress and condition of the child she had given out as dead from her birth. But that Mr. Gryffyth should have made that child his heiress was baffling to all calculation, and they all agreed that it was about the most unrighteous, unreasonable thing he could possibly have done. Many remarks were exchanged while poor Mrs. Dowlas was being recovered from her fit of hysterics. It's a very great misfortune," said Mrs. John Jones to Mrs. James Jones, "for such a girl as her to be left with so much money." "A very dangerous temptation," said Mrs. James Jones in reply to Mrs. John Jones; "anything but a blessing to her. However, I must do her the justice to say that she doesn't look at all stuck up with Oh, Mr. Dowlas, say no more. I'm an old lawyer, and I know how great an allow-it-that is, not at present." ance ought to be made for excited feelings on such occasions as the present. And I know the impulsive character of your good lady's feelings at all times." Mr. Dowlas's good lady seemed about to verify the last remark in some decided manner; but something or other broke down in her, and instead of speaking she could only sob. Mrs. Dowlas was in hysterics. There was a rush for cold water, and I know not what other things besides. Some of the party hung round the afflicted lady. The others began discussing the matter in which her affliction had its origin. In very truth it bewildered all of them. Some of them had not been aware that Mrs. Roberts was supposed to possess a daughter. They had been asking who that pretty young creature that had arrived with the Dowlas party could possibly be, and what had caused her appearance in the gathering of that day. Those who had really heard of Mrs. Roberts's long-lost daughter had a very imperfect knowledge of the circumstances under which she had been lost, and then (as report said) found. They were acquainted with the folly and wickedness (folly in herself and wickedness in another) which had blighted the career of poor Susanna Roberts herself. They fancied that some charitable agency (personal or institutional) had reared her "Stuck up! why, no, indeed: she looks a great deal more as if she were going to be tried for some robbery." Indeed it was true. Eva not only looked, but felt in her inmost heart as though she were in the position of a thief. When first the mention of her name arrested her ear, a transient idea crossed her mind that the lawyer was making a game of her; that (with the possible concert of the Dowlases) he was taking this singular method of showing her that she had no right to be present at this family gathering. Then she saw with what perfect gravity he was reading, and what an outburst of amazement arose from every corner of the room. Then she was conscious that she had become the centre of attraction for every one present. She witnessed the furious outbreak of Mrs. Dowlas, and saw how it ended for the present. All these things passed before her, while she felt the power to speak or act to have utterly passed away from her. Then her senses emerged from bewilderment, and something within her was urging her to come forward promptly and decidedly. "Speak!" her conscience appeared to say; "speak at once. Reveal your actual position? Know you not that silence makes you a robber, and that on a most gigantic scale? A robber in the eyes both of God and of man?" Exerting all her strength of mind, she addressed Mr. Lewis, who was seated with the fatal document still in his hand. 66 Sir, I have something which I ought to tell you. I can never think of accepting this property. Indeed, it is out of the question altogether. It has been left entirely under a mistake; and I must explain to you 99 But Eva was here interrupted by the woman who believed herself to be her mother. "Eva! Eva! consider, for mercy's sake, what you are doing. Do you really want to kill me? - Mr. Lewis, for the love of goodness, persuade her to do no such foolish thing." "Be quite easy, Mrs. Roberts," Mr. Lewis replied. "It is not left in your daughter's power to do any such thing; which, as you well say, would be an exceedingly foolish one. She can't give up this property; and it'll be many a good long year before she can. She'll be very much wiser before that time comes; and there'll be (no doubt) another party by that time who'll have something to say in the matter. Let me finish what I have to read. I think the sooner it is read the better." Evidently the lawyer was. purposing to take advantage of the few precious minutes yet remaining ere Mrs. Dowlas could recover her entire senses, and with them her peculiar and terrible gifts of speech. Eva would have persisted in her intended explanation, but a warning look and touch from Mr. Dowlas arrested her. He evidently wished to tell her that the agitation she was occasioning Mrs. Roberts was dangerous in the highest degree. Oppressive, intolerable almost as was the burden Eva now bore, it must not be got rid of at the risk of that poor creature's reason or life. She must postpone the disclosure which it would have so infinitely relieved her to make at once. Mr. Lewis went on with the duty which remained to him. There was not much more. The will made arrangements as to trustees and cognate matters with which the reader need not and shall not be bothered. Moreover, it provided that Eva, until reaching the age of three-and-twenty, should receive an annual allowance of four hundred pounds, together with full permission to reside, under suitable arrangements, in Tremallyoc House; the needful expenses of housekeeping, including the maintenance of the whole establishment, gardens, and other adjuncts, being met out of the estate held in trust. Whether she married or continued single would make no difference as to the time during which the actual control of the property was to be withheld from Eva. The execution of the will was so formal and regular as to leave no chance of questioning on such grounds. Its date was the second day of August, exactly one week before the testator's death. While Mrs. Dowlas was still slowly emerging from her eclipse. Mr. Lewis was expounding, with all the minuteness due to so youthful an heiress, the exact position in which the will placed her. Everybody was envying Eva, while she was far the most unhappy in all that company. For, as Mr. Lewis continued speaking, a fear of the most terrible kind was taking possession of her. It really appeared as if she could not rectify the fearful mistake which had placed her in so singular a position. She might of course and she surely would refuse in any way to profit by it. But would the refusal restore the property to those (whoever they were) who, but for Eva, would have been left to enjoy it? Who, indeed, could recall a dead man from his grave, how great and fatal soever the ignorance in which he had died? Our heroine had paid little heed to all the talk about Mr. Gryffyth and his property which had been poured into her ears. Perhaps it showed how difficult it had been to unite herself in spirit and in interest with the relations who had unwarrantably claimed her; but even when believing herself to be indeed one of the Roberts family, she had never given a moment's voluntary thought to Mr. Gryffyth or to his property. But now, when the matter had become so suddenly her own concern, she reflected that the family, who still believed her to be one of them, had really some pretention to be Mr. Gryffyth's heirs, and, moreover, that in the absence of a will in their favour, the law would treat their claims as absolutely null. Now in what position would they be left, by her confession that the disposition in her favour had credited her with claims not truly her own? How would such confession affect the will itself? Would it become simply a piece of waste paper? or (which would be horrid indeed) would the estate abide with her, the fruit of unintentional wrong-doing, and a burthen which she could not throw off? For the sake of poor Mrs. Roberts she dared not just now acknowledge all. She hastened, however, to unburthen herself of the other distracting anxieties. -- "Mr. Lewis," she said, "there are one or two questions I must ask you now. Byand-bye I shall have to tell you one or two other things. But there are a few things which it would relieve me very greatly to know. Will you kindly answer me them?" "Most certainly, Miss Roberts. I am I trust it will not displease you to be told 80- your professional adviser. It's my duty to give you all the advice that you think proper to take. Any questions you choose to put shall have my best attention." "I thank you greatly, sir. Well, did I understand you to say that I must take this property? I suppose I cannot give it away ?? "Not until you are three-and-twenty, no." Eva considered that were she now of an age to dispose of the estate, it might have been impossible to ascertain what (before her arrival in Wales) had been Mr. Gryffyth's intentions. And if the property were legally hers, she might then have bestowed it according to such intentions. But more than four years must pass for she could hardly consider herself as born before March, 1838 ere such a purpose could be carried out by her. She tried to put her next inquiry so as not to involve the disclosure she dared not make just now. "Then, if you please, Mr. Lewis, I want to know, supposing-supposing Mrs. Rob that is, my mother, had had no daughter: supposing, that is, that I had died, and Mr. Gryffyth in ignorance had made this will all the same, who would have the property then?" "If you had died before the testator, the legacy (as we say) would have lapsed, and the will (as concerning all that is left to you) would have been void altogether, and the estate would have gone to the heirat-law." "It would not have gone according to any former will?" "Not in this case, for there is no such will in existence. I saw Mr. Gryffyth destroy his previous will with his own hands. Had he not done so, then, in the case you suppose, such former will would have decided the succession to the estate." "But as it is it goes to the heir-at-law ? A nephew of Mr. Gryffyth, is he not?" Yes, the only nephew he ever had. My dear young lady, you're surely not tormenting yourself with the idea that you are wronging him? A most misplaced re gret, I do assure you. In the first place' he is a very rich man already. Besides' poor Gryffyth would never have left it to him. Not but that a little attention from his nephew might have altered all. But that attention was never offered; and the estate was never likely to go in that direction. The gentleman owes none of his loss to you." "Ah, but you little know However, excuse my asking one other question. As I gather from what you say, that Mr. Gryffyth would, in any event, have left some will to whom had he assigned this property before he left it to as he has left it now?" "Hm! well, my dear, that is not a question which it lies quite in professional duty to answer. I tell you what"- and here Mr. Lewis lowered his voice, and indicated to her to place her ear closer to him,— "as you appear so unaccountably scrupulous about the whole matter, and are a young lady, I'll indulge you with a hint. If Mr. Gryffyth had never heard how worthy an heiress he might have if he chose, a certain gentleman here Mr. Lewis plainly indicated Mr. Dowlas - "would have had the lion's share; although a certain lady" and it was evident that he meant Mrs. Roberts "would have benefited largely also." " The Eva's heart sank down within her. more she probed the matter, the worse it appeared to prove; the more inextricable became the frightfully false position into which her well-meant concealment had brought her; the more certain the injury which, by assuming (or rather retaining) a name and position which did not belong to her, she had inflicted on others, who as yet were ignorant of their wrongs. continue the deception for another hour was dreadful. But an immediate confession would probably (when poor Mrs. Roberts was considered) add virtual homicide to her undesigned robbery. And to Eva was diverted from her present thoughts, but only to a certain extent, by the now complete recovery of Mrs. Dowlas. That lady was now rewarding the attentions which her seizure had won her, by snapping at all who surrounded her, and scornfully rejecting the advice they were apparently thrusting with some urgency upon her. "I tell you I will have it out with her! I will have it out with her, if I die!" Everybody present was quite aware with whom, though at the forfeit of her life, Mrs. Dowlas had announced her determination of having it out. And of all present there, | But Mrs. Dowlas could not be got away none were half so unmindful of the attack quite so soon. She rallied herself for one as the person who was to constitute its di- more attack; and in that last onset there rect object. Eva was now too bitterly self- was a little more calculation and a little reproachful to be greatly affected, though less of sheer passion than had marked the by the hardest and wildest reproaches of former engagement. another. - Mrs. Dowlas confronted her and began, "You nasty thievish creature! You scandalous, murderous, larcenous, burglarious thing! To think of your coming in this way and taking the bread out of our mouths, yes, out of our very mouths!" "Mrs. Dowlas," said Mr. Lewis, proffering for Eva the protection she seemed too slow in claiming "Mrs. Dowlas, it might be as well if you would remember that you are in this young lady's own house, and with no right to remain here but such as she pleases to accord you." "I don't care! I don't care! And do you think I wish to remain here? Do you think I don't feel myself polluted every moment I breathe the same air with her? or that I'll ever enter her doors again? No! I wipe" (and here Mrs. Dowlas wriggled her heels on the carpet in proof of it), "I wipe the very dust from the boots of my feet; and if she stood at that window calling and bawling for me to come in, from the first of January to the thirty-first of December, why, I wouldn't come in! No, sir, I wouldn't!" "Well, well, Mrs. Dowlas, of a certainty you are doing your very utmost to reconcile her to your absence." 66 Pray, Miss," she commenced, placing herself in front of Eva-"pray, Miss, now do you think that there is no such thing as law in the country? And do you think that, by giving me any part of this property - suppose we say ten thousand pounds, you'd ever persuade me to be content, or not to expose the rascally roguery by which all this has been done? I tell I'll not take a sixpence out of your hands, there!" you, no! Mrs. Dowlas paused, as if waiting an answer, as very likely she was. Eva possessed neither thought to frame nor breath to utter a reply. Her enemy was at her again. "Now suppose you were to say to me as you sit there, Aunt Jane, you've a largish family and a smallish income; I have no family whatever, and have got a very large income; I'll take one, perhaps two of your children, my cousins, give them good education, and put them out in life with no expense to yourself at all,'-do you think I'd ever let my children be degraded by any such charity as yours? No! I'd whip them all to death one after another if they dared so much as to name the thing!" Eva did not vary her attitude, and felt only like some one exposed to a howling storm of wind. Mrs. Dowlas went desper ately on: "You slimy reptile!" said the lady, again turning to Eva; "to think of your insinu- "If you, now, were to say to me, ' Aunt ating yourself into my uncle Owen's good Dowlas, I've heard it said that uncle Owen graces, and getting him to cheat the just-Mr. Gryffyth - had some bottles of exexpectations of other and better people, all for you!" It was again the lawyer who replied. Eva sat down in the chair from which she had risen. Her thick veil was over her face, and her hands were clasped over her eyes. Whether she caught half the words levelled against her it would not be safe to say. A murmur of "Shame" went round the room. Even those who felt themselves displeased with the will had no sort of sympathy with Mrs. Dowlas. Miss Tudor (like that other maiden lady of her name and race, when she offered herself as godmother to Mary Stuart's son, and proved no such bad godmother in the end)- Miss Tudor came forward and of fered Eva her stately congratulations. A few more of the company did the same. And now the room began to empty itself. cellent rum in his cellar that I freely give to you; it'll comfort you many a time when you have the shiverings about you,'-do you imagine I'd ever take the paltry present at your hands? Before I'd touch a drop (if you sent it all the way to my house) l'à smash all the bottles in the street and let all the stuff run down the gutters! Goodbye! I hate you!" And Mrs. Dowlas flounced and bounced out of the room. Her husband had already gone out to prepare for their return to Llyn-. bwllyn. Just a few minutes after his wife's departure, Mr. Dowlas re-entered the dining-room. Eva," he said, "believe me when I say that I am in no way displeased at what has occurred, and that I most heartily congratulate you. May you live long in the enjoy ment of what has been given you to-day!" Eva thanked him. He did not like her the less for the little of exultation she displayed. "I presume," he said, "that as you are here already, and you have the choice of doing so, you will now remain here. I should strongly urge your doing so, and so I think will Mr. Lewis. I fear my house has never been a very happy home to you, and now I fear indeed it would scarcely be a tolerable one." "Can I remain here one night?" Eva asked. Unconsciously, she spoke as if those around her were aware already of her actual position. "One night, Miss Roberts! All the nights and days and I trust there are a good many of them which yet remain to you on earth. Let me again explain to you that you have a right to occupy this house at once, though it will be some time before you have the full disposal of it. Mrs. Roberts, you, I have no doubt, will take up your abode with your daughter, and then every possible objection is removed." - "You will stay here, Susanna?" said Mr. Dowlas. "If my daughter will have me, Oh, Eva, haven't you got a word of welcome for your poor mother, vexed and afflicted as she has been? Surely you're not going to say that as I turned you out when you were born, so now you'll turn your back upon me? Oh, Eva, Eva! you know it was quite as much for your sake as my own that I did it! Say you won't cast me off! Do say I may live with you! Any corner of the house will content me, if you'll only let me live under your roof." Eva felt her senses going. Every step took her further and further into the labyrinth of deceit, and laid up worse consequences to come of the inevitable disclosure. She felt a wild impulse within, urging her to leave the house and walk away anywhere anywhere, never to meet with these people again. "I don't know what to say. I don't know what I ought to say. If it were in my power" 66 Why, Miss Roberts," interrupted Mr. Lewis, "I surely do not understand you to say that you object to your mother's having a home with you here?" Mr. Lewis looked seriously disapproving. He was evidently thinking, "What! the bad effects of sudden prosperity showing themselves already, and in a young woman whose first behaviour seemed so much to the contrary! This is rather startling, even for a lawyer!" Eva saw the injustice she was doing herself; but she felt as helpless before the force of circumstances as a feather before the driving wind. It cut her to the heart to be suspected of thoughts so utterly alien from her. "Indeed, indeed," she said, "I wish you to stay here. Indeed, I wish it were all your own. I am wretched to think it is not." "There, there, Mrs. Roberts," exclaimed the lawyer, evidently glad to replace the heiress in his good opinion - there, there, Mrs. Roberts, now you see you have an excellent daughter, as dutiful as she is beautiful. Don't fear but that she'll make you a very happy home here. You see she's just a little bewildered with all this unexpected good luck. I should recommend a good cup of tea and early bed, and, not to tease you any more, I'll now take myself off, and call to-morrow, - no, shall we say Saturday? If you want me in the mean time, pray send for me. I live at Brynwddyn, you know: Good-bye for the present; and much much happiness to you both!" The lawyer was gone. Mrs. Dowlas's voice was heard screaming out for her husband with a number of opprobrious epithets, which (for want of space) we cannot set down. He went away at her summons, and very soon the house held none save Eva and her mother. There was the best of accommodation ready for them, and their things would be sent from Llynbwllyn the next morning. A few articles for the night would be forwarded that very evening. The falsely named Miss Roberts, now anxious to be quite alone, retired up-stairs on the plea of a headache. And the most rigid advocate for verbal truth would have scarcely called her to account for the excuse. The servants (there were just three of them) were very desirous, by assiduous attention, to gain her early and favourable notice. She accepted a cup of tea at the housemaid's hands; and long ere her usual hour she went to bed to try if she could rest. At least, she could think her position over without the fear of betraying herself by words or looks. She did think much and long, but the dreadful difficulty appeared to mock her more and more. She felt like one wandering in a labyrinth, with no hope of ever escaping out of its mazes. Of one thing she was certain. She must not keep the secret long. One only thing there was which could make her position worse, that was the divulging of the fact by some one speaking independently of herself. That |