“Elvira, by all that’s lucky!” exclaimed Jock. “Well done, Allen, you are still the Lady Clare!” “Not till she is of age,” said Allen, rather gloomily. “Pity you didn’t marry her at Algiers,” said Jock. “Where did this come from?” said Bobus, who had been examining it intently. “Out of the old bureau.” “Mother!” cried out Barbara, in a tone of horror, which perhaps was a revelation to Bobus, for he exclaimed-- “You don’t mean that Janet had had it, and brought it out to threaten you?” “Oh, no, no! it was not so dreadful. She found it long ago, but did not think it valid, and only kept it out of sight because she thought it would make me unhappy.” “It is a pity she did not go a step further,” observed Bobus. “Why did she produce it now?” “I found it. Boys, you must know the whole truth, and consider how best to screen your sister. Remember she was very young, and fancied a thing on a common sheet of paper, and shut up in an unfastened table drawer could not be of force, and that she was doing no harm.” Then she told of her loss and recovery of what she called some medical memoranda of their father, which she knew Janet wanted, concluding--“It will surely be enough to say I found it in his old bureau.” “That will hardly go down with Wakefield,” said Bobus; “but as I see he stands here as trustee for that wretched child, as well as being yours, there is no fear but that he will be conformable. Shall I take it up and show it to him at once, so that if by any happy chance this should turn out waste paper, no one may get on the scent?” “Your uncle! I was so amazed and stupefied yesterday that I don’t know whether I told him, and if I did, I don’t think he believed me.” “Here he comes,” said Barbara, as the wheels of his dog-cart were heard below the window. “Ask him to come up. It will be a terrible blow to him. This place has been as much to him as to any of us, if not more.” “Mother, how brave you are!” cried Jock. “I have known it longer than you have, my dear. Besides, the mere loss is nothing compared with that which led to it. The worst of it is the overthrow of all your prospects, my dear fellow.” “Oh,” said Jock, brightly, “it only means that we have something and somebody to work for now;” and he threw his arms round her waist and kissed her. “Oh! my dear, dear boy, don’t! Don’t upset me, or your uncle will think it is about this.” “And don’t, for Heaven’s sake, talk as if it were all up with us,” cried Bobus. By this time the Colonel’s ponderous tread was near, and Caroline met him with an apology for giving him the trouble of the ascent, but said that she had wanted to see him in private. “Is this in private?” asked the Colonel, looking at the five young people. “Yes. They have a right to know all. Here it is, Robert.” He sat down, deliberately put on his spectacles, took the will, read it once, and groaned, read it twice, and groaned more deeply, and then said--