practical domain of other lawyers' offices before they could cope effectively with the anomalies of the case. As it stood, it was beyond their grasp. While the girls, sitting together by the table, strove to digest the meaning of the legal phrases that had fallen so strangely on their ears, Mr. Brion and Paul exchanged _sotto voce_ suggestions and opinions over the parchment spread out before them. Then presently the old man opened a second document, glanced silently down the first page, cleared his throat, and looking over his spectacles, said solemnly, "My dears, give me your attention for a few minutes." Each changed her position a little, and looked at him steadily. Paul leaned back in his chair, and put his hand over his eyes. "What I have just been reading to you," said Mr. Brion, "is your father's last will and testament, as I believe. It appears that his surname was Yelverton, and that King was only an abbreviation of his Christian name--assumed as the surname for the purpose of eluding the search made for him by his family. Now, certain circumstances have come to our knowledge lately, referring, apparently, to this inexplicable conduct on your father's part." He paused, coughed, and nervously smoothed out the sheets before him, glancing hither and thither over their contents. "Elizabeth, my dear," he went on, "I think you heard Mr. Yelverton's account of his uncle's strange disappearance after--ahem--after a certain unfortunate catastrophe?" "Yes," said Elizabeth. "We all know about that." "Well, it seems--of course we must not jump at conclusions too hastily, but still it appears to me a reasonable conjecture--that your father and Mr. Yelverton's lost uncle _were_ one and the same person. The affair altogether is so extraordinary, so altogether unaccountable, on the face of it, that we shall require a great deal of proof--and of course Mr. Yelverton himself will require the very fullest and most absolute legal proof--before we can accept the theory as an established fact--" "Did I not say so?" Elizabeth interrupted eagerly, surprised by the old man's sudden assumption of scepticism now that all doubt and uncertainty seemed to be over. "I wish that nothing should be done--that no steps of any sort should be taken--until it is all proved to the last letter." "Well," said Mr. Brion, at once abandoning his cautious attitude, "we must take steps to obtain proof before we _can_ obtain it. And, as it providentially happens, we have received the most opportune and, as I believe, the most unimpeachable testimony from Mr. Yelverton himself, who is the loser by our gain, and who gave us the information which is so singularly corroborated in these documents before the existence of such documents was known to anybody. But if more were wanted--" "More _is_ wanted," urged Elizabeth. "We cannot take advantage of his own admissions to ruin him."