‘I’m sure I hope not,’ sighed the husband. ‘I’ve had enough trouble these past months to carry a man into his grave. But I do think when we’ve searched Ladywell and found that will, we really shall have no more to fear. You’re sure Betsy Long is to be trusted to let us in and to hold her tongue?’ ‘Oh yes! I make it well worth her while. She loves money far too well to betray us. We can spend as many nights as we like in the library, and nobody be any the wiser.’ ‘Ah!’ and Belassis drew a long breath, ‘it really seems as if things were coming right at last!’ And then the door opened, and Lewis came in. ‘Well, sir!’ said the father grandly. Mrs. Belassis folded her hands with a smile, and added, interrogatively: ‘Well, Lewis?’ ‘Well, sir, I’ve come to say a rather less hasty good-bye; and to tell you of a resolution I have taken.’ Both countenances changed slightly. ‘Say good-bye!’ echoed Belassis, with the ghost of a laugh. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Don’t be a fool, Lewis,’ advised his mother concisely. ‘I’m going to stay at Ladywell until I can find something to do, for I’m sick of the life here, and don’t mean to stay to be ordered out of the house a second time. People there are very kind, and I shall be sure to find some sort of a berth before very long. Now I want to know when that ten thousand pounds, with interest and compound interest for eighteen years, will be paid in to me?’ Mr. Belassis sat silent; his jaw had fallen somewhat, his eyes were full of anxiety. His wife spoke in his place: ‘Why do you ask?’ ‘I should have thought it was a very natural question. As Maud is to be married to some one else very shortly, I should think the money might be paid up at once.’ ‘It will be paid when your father thinks right.’ ‘That won’t quite do for me,’ said Lewis boldly; ‘the money is mine, and I want it. I want to get the transfer made out, and the thing off my mind, before I make my own start. Now, sir, will you kindly tell me what you mean to do?’ ‘The transfer!’ gasped Belassis; ‘what the devil do you mean?’ ‘I thought I had made myself plain the other night,’ said Lewis. ‘The money is Maud’s, not mine, and I shall simply transfer it to her.’ ‘You will do no such thing, Lewis,’ said Mrs. Belassis, with significance. ‘I shall do it!’ said Lewis firmly. ‘Everybody knows it, and I shall stand by my word.’ ‘You will have no power to do so,’ answered the mother. ‘You had better have held your tongue about it, as I advised you.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘I mean that there is no money to receive. Your clever and honest father has speculated with it—and lost it. That is all.’ Lewis stood still in astonishment and dismay. ‘But I can claim it—he is bound to repay it!’ ‘If you choose you can, of course; but you will not. Maud’s five thousand must be paid, and will be, though it is a serious loss to us; but you will never see a penny of yours.’