"Hard! Why, yes;--I should think I am. I mean to be hard. I mean to go on trampling you to pieces till I see your cousin, Miss Brodrick, put into full possession of this estate. I don't mean to leave you a loop-hole of escape by any mercy. At the present moment you are Henry Jones, Esq., of Llanfeare, and will be so till you are put out by the hard hand of the law. You may turn round for anything I know, and say that this document is a forgery." "No, no!" "That Mr Brodrick and I brought it here with us and put it in the book." "I sha'n't say anything of the kind." "Who did put it there?" Cousin Henry sobbed and groaned, but said nothing. "Who did put it there? If you want to soften our hearts to you in any degree, if you wish us to contrive some mode of escape for you, tell the truth. Who put the will into that book?" "How am I to know?" "You do know! Who put it there?" "I suppose it was Uncle Indefer." "And you had seen it there?" Again Cousin Henry sobbed and groaned. "You should hardly ask him that," said Mr Brodrick. "Yes! If any good can be done for him, it must be by making him feel that he must help us by making our case easy for us. You had seen it there? Speak the word, and we will do all we can to let you off easily." "Just by an accident," said he. "You did see it, then?" "Yes;--I chanced to see it." "Yes; of course you did. And then the Devil went to work with you and prompted you to destroy it?" He paused as though asking a question, but to this question Cousin Henry found it impossible to make any answer. "But the Devil had not quite hold enough over you to make you do that? It was so;--was it not? There was a conscience with you?" "Oh, yes." "But the conscience was not strong enough to force you to give it up when you found it?" Cousin Henry now burst out into open tears. "That was about it, I suppose? If you can bring yourself to make a clean breast of it, it will be easier for you." "May I go back to London at once?" he asked. "Well; as to that, I think we had better take some little time for consideration. But I think I may say that, if you will make our way easy for us, we will endeavour to make yours easy for you. You acknowledge this to be your uncle's will as far as you know?" "Oh, yes." "You acknowledge that Mr Brodrick found it in this book which I now hold in my hand?" "I acknowledge that."