"The family--disputing the will!" Lewis said, with astonishment. He was bewildered by the suggestion. The agent had come from Scotland on purpose to give the young man full information concerning his fortune. "They might, you know, have pleaded undue influence, or even that Sir Patrick was old, and unfit to judge for himself: that he had been bullied into it, or coaxed into it." "Bullied into it--or coaxed into it!" Lewis echoed the words in utter amazement and dismay, with that slightest touch of foreignness in his accent which in the circumstances made the lawyer's blood boil, for he was an old family lawyer, who had managed the Murray property for generations, and his indignation was unspeakable, as may be supposed. "Just so," he said, coldly. "I was consulted on the subject; but I could only say there was no evidence--nothing that had come under my observation; so you need not fear any opposition on that point." "But this is very mysterious," said Lewis. "Why should they entertain such an opinion of me?" He asked the question in all innocence, fixing his eyes upon the lawyer's face; and Mr. Allenerly, though so prejudiced, could not help being moved by this entirely straightforward regard. "You see," he said, a little abashed, "they know nothing about you." "That is true enough," said Lewis, reassured. "They know nothing about you; all that they know is, that somebody has stolen into their grandfather's regard, and got all their money--somebody that has nothing to do with the family. That's rather a bitter pill, for they're not rich. You might be an angel from heaven, and yet as you are not a Murray the family would feel it; but you may make yourself easy on the subject. There will be no opposition." The insinuation and the re-assurance were alike astonishing to Lewis. "If there is any ground on which to oppose it, I should wish that there should be opposition. I did not want Sir Patrick's money. I never thought of it--never knew he had any." "You couldn't suppose," said Mr. Allenerly, with some disdain, "that all this was kept up on nothing?" They were in Sir Patrick's rooms, where the young man had remained. "That is true. No, surely it could not be kept up without money--and there was plenty of money--of course, I must have been aware of that; but I never thought of it--not for myself." The lawyer was very prejudiced and extremely unwilling to allow himself to say anything, but after a little hesitation he burst forth, as if the confession had been forced from him, "I believe that." "Then why should they think so badly of me?" Lewis said.