‘Philip Debenham’s last will and testament—the one you were so certain he would frame, if he could, to cancel the one you wrung from him by the extraordinary influence you had obtained over him. It is all exactly as you thought. He did make another will, and hid it away at Ladywell, out of your reach. You have betrayed your own secret, and thanks to you, that will is now in our possession.’ Belassis could not speak. After a few minutes’ pause his wife asked: ‘And what are its terms?’ ‘Not any which _ought_ to affect you—simply that Maud inherits her mother’s fortune, principal and interest, without any condition whatever. You best know how this transfer will affect you; as I said before, apart from your paternal feeling for your son, the matter should not make the smallest difference to you.’ Belassis’ face was white and rigid. ‘It will only ruin me, that’s all.’ ‘You mean to say that you have lost the money?’ asked Tor coolly. ‘Yes.’ ‘Then of course you will have to make good the loss.’ ‘I cannot—I have been very unlucky. I don’t know how to lay my hands upon five thousand, let alone twenty, and it will come to that and more, with compound interest for all these years.’ ‘Well, Mr. Belassis, you understand your own affairs best, but you know the money will have to be paid.’ ‘I cannot pay it, I tell you!’ ‘You should have considered all that before you thought fit to speculate with it. Now you have no alternative in the matter. You chose to spend another person’s money, and you must repay it. The whole thing is as plain as a pikestaff.’ ‘I can’t—I tell you I can’t!’ ‘You will soon find that you are obliged.’ ‘I say I can’t!’ cried Belassis, waxing desperate. ‘You can’t get blood out of a stone.’ ‘No, but you can get money out of an estate. You must sell your property, or transfer it, in part payment. The thing is perfectly simple.’ ‘What!’ groaned Belassis, driven to bay; ‘do you mean to tell me that my own niece would dare to turn me out of my house, to die like a dog upon the highroad, because I have been so unfortunate as to lose some money, which I was endeavouring to turn to good account for her benefit? Do you mean to tell me that?’ ‘I mean to tell you,’ answered Tor, repressing a strong inclination to punch the old rascal’s head, ‘that the law will oblige you to restore stolen property. You have squandered away Maud’s inheritance in order to enrich yourself, and now you will have to take the consequences, and lose your own. You cannot play fast and loose with other people’s money and not suffer for it. You cannot have your cake and eat your cake too. You chose your own course of action, and now you must abide by the results.’ ‘My own niece would ruin me,’ moaned Belassis, ‘whom I have reared like my own, and treated as a daughter. I never thought to see a day like this! I could not have believed it possible. I will _not_ believe dear Maud means to be so cruel.’