"
"Have you written those words, sir?"
"Yes."
Mrs. Lecount laid down the Draft; Noel Vanstone laid down the pen. They
neither of them looked at each other. There was a long silence.
"I am waiting, Mr. Noel," said Mrs. Lecount, at last, "to hear what
your wishes are in respect to the disposal of your fortune. Your _large_
fortune," she added, with merciless emphasis.
He took up the pen again, and began picking the feathers from the quill
in dead silence.
"Perhaps your existing will may help you to instruct me, sir," pursued
Mrs. Lecount. "May I inquire to whom you left all your surplus money,
after leaving the eighty thousand pounds to your wife?"
If he had answered that question plainly, he must have said: "I have
left the whole surplus to my cousin, George Bartram"--and the implied
acknowledgment that Mrs. Lecount's name was not mentioned in the will
must then have followed in Mrs. Lecount's presence. A much bolder man,
in his situation, might have felt the same oppression and the same
embarrassment which he was feeling now. He picked the last morsel of
feather from the quill; and, desperately leaping the pitfall under his
feet, advanced to meet Mrs.
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