"No!" answered Pratt. "I shall not!" He saw that his answer produced personal anger at last. Mrs. Mallathorpe gave him a look which would have warned a much less observant man than Pratt. But he gave her back a look that was just as resolute. "I say no--and I mean no!" he continued. "I won't sell--but I'll bargain. Let's be plain with each other. You don't want that will to be handed over to the trustees named in it, Charlesworth & Wyatt?" "Do you think I'm a fool--man!" she flashed out. "I should be a fool myself if I did," replied Pratt calmly. "And I'm not a fool. Very well--then you'll square me. You'll buy me. Come to terms with me, and nobody shall ever know. I repeat to you what I've said before--not a soul knows now, no nor suspects! It's utterly impossible for anybody to find out. The testator's dead. The attesting witnesses are dead. The man who found this will is dead. No one but you and myself ever need know a word about all this. If--you make terms with me, Mrs. Mallathorpe." "What do you want?" she asked sullenly. "You forget--I've nothing of my own. I didn't come into anything." "I've a pretty good notion who's real master here--and at Mallathorpe Mill, too," retorted Pratt. "I should say you're still in full control of your children, Mrs. Mallathorpe, and that you can do pretty well what you like with them." "With one of them perhaps," she said, still angry and sullen. "But--I tell you, for you may as well know--if my daughter knew of what you've told me, she'd go straight to these trustees and tell! That's a fact that you'd better realize. I can't control her." "Oh!" remarked Pratt. "Um!--then we must take care that she doesn't know. But we don't intend that anybody should know but you and me, Mrs. Mallathorpe. You needn't tell a soul--not even your son. You mustn't tell! Listen, now--I've thought out a good scheme which'll profit me, and make you safe. Do you know what you want on this estate?" She stared at him as if wondering what this question had to do with the matter which was of such infinite importance. And Pratt smiled, and hastened to enlighten her. "You want--a steward," he said. "A steward and estate agent. John Mallathorpe managed everything for himself, but your son can't, and pardon me if I say that you can't--properly. You need a man--you need me. You can persuade your son to that effect. Give me the job of steward here. I'll suggest to you how to do it in such a fashion that it'll arouse no suspicion, and look just like an ordinary--very ordinary--business job--at a salary and on conditions to be arranged, and--you're safe! Safe, Mrs. Mallathorpe--you know what that means!" Mrs. Mallathorpe suddenly rose from her chair. "I know this!" she said. "I'll discuss nothing, and do nothing, till I've seen that will!" Pratt rose, too, nodding his head as if quite satisfied. He took up the copy, tore it in two pieces, and carefully dropped them into the glowing fire.