"I'll try my hardest, miss, Heaven bless, you," said Mrs. Mellin, and this particular conversation ended with the entrance of the Rector's wife, to whom the washerwoman dropped a curtsey. Claudia, having done the best she could, went away to attend to other work, leaving Mrs. Craver to count the washing and hear the news. There was much to be done upstairs, as spring-cleaning was in progress, so Claudia worked like a Trojan, both to help her prospective mother-in-law and the aching of her own heart. While working and giving her attention to every-day things, she could not worry, and managed to pass the time profitably, and tolerably easily until Edwin returned. She heard his step in the hall immediately he opened the front door and flew down swiftly, all agog for news. "Well? Well?" she asked, I anxiously, and drawing him into the sitting-room. Edwin put his arm round her waist and looked at her queerly. "I am coming in for a fortune," he observed, in an abrupt manner. Claudia stared. "What do you mean? Sit down and explain." Edwin sat down and did as he was told. "Lady Wyke is furious at you, and wants to make you suffer for shaking her as you did. She told me that she never did believe me guilty, and only said so to annoy you and to trap me into marriage. She thought that I would give in, and make her my wife rather than face the worst." "Well, she found out when I saw her that she was mistaken," said Claudia, tartly. "Yes, she did, and now has gone on a new tack. She doesn't intend to force me into marriage, because she cannot. But she went to London the other day to make a will in my favour. Yes, you may stare, Claudia, but Lady Wyke told me that if she dies I got five thousand a year. The will is made, signed, and witnessed, and Mr. Sandal holds it." "Pouf!" said Claudia, contemptuously. "Mr. Sandal knows that the will is wastepaper. I wonder Lady Wyke thinks you are such a fool as to be taken in with that bluff." "Is it bluff!" asked Edwin, looking puzzled. "How?" "Why, don't you know that a will made before marriage is null and void if the marriage takes place?" "No. I never knew that. Few people do know it, I fancy." "Lady Wyke believed that you were ignorant, and so has simply been trying to bluff you into marriage with her. She has made the will to bribe you; but she knows that if you marry her the will becomes wastepaper. See?" "I see. Anyhow, whether the will is destroyed by her or not, I don't intend to marry her. Therefore, unless she alters the will, it stands in my favour. Not that I want the money, Claudia." "Nor I," said the girl. "However, you made Lady Wyke understand that you would remain true to me?"