Luther stopped, and stood, frowning. On the boy's open, honest face came a perplexed look. But Alice said again, in injured tones, that she didn't know what Mrs. Gray meant. In the parlor the three elders looked at each other in silence. Mrs. Gray had risen, and stood leaning forward, her trembling hands flat on the table. "I don't--understand," she said. "Mr. Carter," said Dr. Lavendar, "certain remarks of yours on our way up here made me apprehensive. I see that my friend, Mrs. Gray, is also--apprehensive. I would suggest that you have a few words with her alone. I will leave you." "No," Rebecca said; "hear the end of it." Her hard face was red and hot. "Why does Mr. Urquhart leave the child of Robert Gray £5000? Why?" "It is as I think you surmise, madam," John Carter said, gravely. Rebecca recoiled, with a broken exclamation of horror. Dr. Lavendar drew in his breath. "Oh, my poor Robert!" he said. "It is so stated in the will," the lawyer went on; "there is no disguising it; nor, as far as I can see, can it be hidden from the legatee. The directions for finding this heir make the thing explicit. The testator states that he received information of the expected birth of his child _after_ the marriage of the person in question, who did not mention her married name--hence our difficulty in tracing her." Rebecca, her eyes narrowing into a cruel smile, sat down and rocked backward and forward in her chair. "Dreadful--dreadful--dreadful!" she said, aloud, exultantly. V. The last quarter of an hour, packed with tragic revelation, lost Mr. Carter the stage. "I hope you will put up at the Rectory, sir," Dr. Lavendar said, as they drove away from Robert Gray's door. "I thank you, sir," said Mr. Carter. Then they fell into silence--Mr. Carter from politeness, Dr. Lavendar from horror. He was going back in his memory with painful effort; but it was all very vague.... He had hardly known her; she had been ill for those months that she had been in Old Chester, and she had made it very clear that she did not care to see people. He thought of her beautiful, sullen face; of Robert Gray's passionate devotion; of Old Chester's silent disapproval.... He groaned to himself, and John Carter looked at him sidewise. After supper at the Rectory, they sat down to smoke in heavy silence; Mr. Carter respected the old man's distress, but wondered if he should not have been more comfortable with Van Horn at the Tavern. The glowing July day had darkened into rainy night, with a grumble of thunder back among the hills; but in the midst of a sudden downpour they heard footsteps on the path, and then some one pushed open the hall door, and flapped a wet umbrella on the steps before entering. A minute later Luther Metcalf stood, hesitating, on the study threshold. "Dr. Lavendar--"