As the words passed the lawyer's lips, Miss Garth and Norah looked at
Magdalen anxiously. Her face turned a shade paler--but not a feature of
it moved; not a word escaped her. Norah, who held her sister's hand in
her own, felt it tremble for a moment, and then turn cold--and that was
all.
"Let me mention plainly what I have done," resumed Mr. Pendril; "I am
very desirous you should not think that I have left any effort untried.
When I wrote to Michael Vanstone, in the first instance, I did not
confine myself to the usual formal statement. I put before him, plainly
and earnestly, every one of the circumstances under which he has
become possessed of his brother's fortune. When I received the answer,
referring me to his written instructions to his lawyer in London--and
when a copy of those instructions was placed in my hands--I positively
declined, on becoming acquainted with them, to receive the writer's
decision as final. I induce d the solicitor, on the other side, to
accord us a further term of delay; I attempted to see Mr. Noel Vanstone
in London for the purpose of obtaining his intercession; and, failing
in that, I myself wrote to his father for the second time.
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