"Mary knew not the meaning of what she uttered, but, quick as lightning, it brought to my recollection a pannel which concealed a small cavity in a closet adjoining the library. There, I doubted not the will was placed! The woman my father loved, my aunt, her Edward, and her on whose happiness I then found mine depended, were wandering without support: and the idea determined me, regardless of the consequence which must ensue, should I be discovered, to venture beneath the roof I so lately fled from! "Favoured by the night, I entered by the servants offices, and got, unperceived, through the library to the closet. Mary had provided me with a small dark lanthorn, and, with some difficulty I opened the cavity; but again was doomed to disappointment; it was vacant! With an aching heart I closed the pannel, and was going to leave the closet, when my mother and Mallet entered the library. They discoursed on the improvement of an estate he had purchased for my mother a few weeks before; till Mr. Talton's name was casually mentioned, when he asked if she really designed to marry him? and, on her answering in the affirmative, he endeavoured to dissuade her from it, and to prevail on her to bestow her hand on himself. "'I love you, Charles,' she answered, 'and believe your sentiments are reciprocal; but will never put it in your power to controul me. I am now mistress of a noble fortune; and you are welcome to partake of it, even if increased by that of Talton. Cease then to repeat the only request I wish to refuse you; and rest satisfied with the title of my lover.' "He still urged his suit, still she peremptorily forbade the subject, and reverted to the newly-purchased estate; he soon after retired to his office, and my mother entered the closet where I was, for the purpose of writing. Never was surprise and horror greater than that expressed on her countenance at beholding me: scarcely could her trembling hand retain the light which exposed the features of a son to her view.--'It is the phantom of the drowned Corbet!' she at length faintly screamed. 'Approach me not! Help--help!' "'No, Madam,' I exclaimed, 'your son still lives! and you may now glory in having reduced him to the state, in which your lover deserted Louise.'