'The all is unfortunately simple enough. You will have to tell her that so far as she was concerned, the life of this man who has just passed away was a fraud and a pretence; that his name was not Claxton, but Calverley; that he was not her husband, for at the very time when he, as she thought, made her his wife, he was married to another woman. You will have to expose all his baseness and his treachery; and you will find that she will speak pityingly of him, and forgive him, as women always do forgive those who ruin them body and soul.' 'You think they do?' said Martin Gurwood, looking at him earnestly. 'I know it,' said Statham. 'But that is neither here nor there. You must undertake this duty, Martin, for it lies more in your province than in mine. If my original notion had proved correct, I could have assumed the requisite amount of sternness, and should have done very well; but as matters stand at present I should be quite out of my element. It is meant for you, Martin, and you must do it.' 'I will do my best,' said Martin, 'though I shudder at the task, and greatly fear my own powers in being able to carry it through: Am I to say anything about the annuity, as we settled before?' 'No, I think not,' said Humphrey Statham promptly; 'that is a part of the affair which need not be touched on just yet; and when it comes to the front, I had better take it in hand. Not that you would not deal with it with perfect delicacy, but it requires a little infusion of business, which is more in my way. You are perfectly certain you are right in what you told me the other day about the will? No mention of any one who could possibly be this lady whom we know as Mrs. Claxton?' 'None. Every person named in the will is known to me or to my mother.' 'Have you been through Mr. Calverley's private papers?' 'I have gone through most of them; they were not numerous, and were very methodically arranged.' 'And you have found nothing suspicious in them, no memorandum making provision for any one?' 'Nothing of the kind. But last night Mr. Jeffreys brought up to me the banker's pass-book of the firm, and I noticed that about four months ago a sum of two thousand pounds was transferred from the business account to Mr. Calverley's private account, and I thought that was remarkable.' 'It was, and to have noticed it does you credit. I had no idea you had so much business discrimination.' 'You have not heard all,' said Martin. 'On my pointing this out to Mr. Jeffreys, of course without hinting what idea had struck me, he told me that three or four years ago, he could not recollect the exact date off-hand, a very much larger sum, ten thousand pounds, in fact, had been transferred from one account to the other in the same way.'