"Then there was--there is--no fraud, as far as you are aware?" "Certainly not, ma'am. How would it be possible?" "That I cannot guess." "Look here now, Miss Ella, there _couldn't be_. The Squire's will was drawn up by Lawyer Daventry, and signed by himself in the presence of witnesses. Everything but a few legacies was to come to you, as he had meant it to all his life. Fraud, ma'am! if he had left it away from you one might talk of fraud; not as it is. No, no! That wretched lad--and won't I give it him!--was in one of his wild fits when he said such words, not rightly accountable." Could Miss Winter say more? She asked Aaron no further questions, but let him go. Still, in her own mind she could not feel satisfied. What brought that look of terror into Aaron's face when she repeated to him Hubert's words? Why had he trembled to that strange excess? and why had his emotion been so great? And the more Miss Winter strove to assure herself that there was no cause to fear things were not honest and straightforward, the less she thought them so, and she resolved to speak to her uncle's lawyer, Mr. Daventry. Walking into Nullington, she found him at his office, and saw him alone. "I have come to seek your advice on what seems to me a very important matter," she began, when she was seated. "I could not rest without coming to you." "I need hardly say, my dear Miss Winter, that I am entirely at your service," he replied. "It has been intimated to me that fraud of some kind has been at work in connection with my inheritance of Heron Dyke," she continued, having previously determined to avoid if possible the mention of Hubert's name. "I am precluded from telling you in what way this information reached me; but it was declared to me, in unmistakable terms, that I had no more right to the property than you have." Lawyer Daventry's eyebrows went up in utter surprise. He drew his chair a little closer to that of Miss Winter, and began to bite his quill pen meditatively, as he waited to hear more. "You, Mr. Daventry, had the management of all my uncle's most important affairs. You drew up his will; you were, I believe, present when he signed it; and you, I am sure, would not lend yourself to deceit of any kind; tell me then what, in your opinion, this information can mean." "My opinion, Miss Winter, is that there is not an iota of truth in it. The chances are that it will turn out to be nothing more than an attempt to extort money." "It will certainly not prove to be that," replied Ella, decisively. "On that point I can speak with confidence." "You will not tell me who it was who gave you this information?" "I would rather not; at least, at present. It was--I think I may say," she added somewhat hesitatingly--"an old friend." "A very queer friend, it seems to me. He must have had a motive: what was it?"