And then Leonard Tregonell rose from his seat by the fire, and came close up to the table at which Mr. Bryanstone was sitting. "Am I at liberty to reject that legacy on my son's part?" he asked. "Certainly not. The money is left in trust. Your son can do what he likes when he comes of age. But why should you wish to decline such a legacy--left in such friendly terms? Mr. Hamleigh was your friend." "He was my mother's friend--for me only a recent acquaintance. It seems to me that there is a sort of indirect insult in such a bequest, as if I were unable to provide for my boy--as if I were likely to run through everything, and make him a pauper before he comes of age." "Believe me there is no such implication," said the lawyer, smiling blandly at the look of trouble and anger in the other man's face. "Did you never hear before of money being left to a man who already has plenty? That is the general bent of all legacies. In this world it is the poor who are sent empty away," murmured Mr. Bryanstone, with a sly glance under his spectacles at the seven blank faces of the seven cousins. "I consider that Mr. Hamleigh--who was my very dear friend--has paid you the highest compliment in his power, and that you have every reason to honour his memory." "And legally I have no power to refuse his property?" "Certainly not. The estate is not left to you--you have no power to touch a sixpence of it." "And the will is dated?" "Just three weeks ago." "Within the first week of this visit here. He must have taken an inordinate fancy to my boy." Mr. Bryanstone smiled to himself softly with lowered eyelids, as he folded up the will--a holograph will upon a single sheet of Bath post--witnessed by two of the Mount Royal servants. The family solicitor knew all about Angus Hamleigh's engagement to Miss Courtenay--had even received instructions for drawing the marriage settlement--but he was too much a man of the world to refer to that fact. "Was not Mr. Hamleigh's father engaged to your mother?" he asked. "Yes." "Then don't you think that respect for your mother may have had some influence with Mr. Hamleigh when he made your son his heir?" "I am not going to speculate about his motives. I only wish he had left his money to an asylum for idiots--or to his cousins"--with a glance at the somewhat vacuous countenances of the dead man's kindred, "or that I were at liberty to decline his gift--which I should do, flatly." "This sounds as if you were prejudiced against my lamented friend. I thought you liked him." "So I did," stammered Leonard, "but not well enough to give him the right to patronise me with his d--d legacy." "Mr. Tregonell," said the lawyer, frowning, "I have to remind you that my late client has left you, individually, nothing--and I must add, that your language and manner are most unbefitting this melancholy occasion."