“My dear Miss Bond, you are not ill, I hope?” exclaimed Mr. Cramp.  “I pray you to bear up; what has been said is doubtless wrong—­must be wrong; a threat of the opposite party—­an undefined threat, which we must prepare ourselves to meet in a lawyer-like way.  Hope for the best, and prepare”—­

“For what, sir?” inquired Miss Bond, gaspingly.

“For any—­anything—­that is my plan.  Unfortunately, the only way to deal with the world, so as to meet it on equal terms, is to think every man a rogue.  It is a deeply painful view to take of human nature, and it agonizes me to do so.  Let me, however, entreat you to bear up”—­

“Against what, sir?” said Sarah Bond abruptly, and almost fiercely, for now Mr. Cramp’s face was reduced to its original size, and she had collected her ideas.  “There are few things I could not bear up against, but I must know what I have to sustain.”

“Your father’s will, my dear lady, is safe; the document, leaving everything to you, that is safe, and all other documents are safe enough except Cornelius Bond Hobart’s will—­a will bequeathing the property to your uncle. Where is that will to be found? for if Alfred Bond proceeds, the veritable document must be produced.”

“Why, so it can be, I suppose,” said Sarah Bond, relapsing in some degree into agitation; “it was produced when my father inherited the property, as you know.”

“I beg your pardon, Miss Bond,” he answered; “certainly not as I know, for I had not the honour of being your father’s legal adviser at that time.  It was my master and subsequent partner.  I had not the privilege of your father’s confidence until after my colleague’s death.”

“No one,” said Miss Bond, “ever had my father’s confidence, properly so called; he was very close in all money transactions.  The will, however, must be, I think, in Doctors’ Commons!  Go there immediately, Mr. Cramp; and—­stay—­I will go with you; there it is, and there are the names of the witnesses.”

“My dear lady!” expostulated the attorney, in the softest tones of his soft voice, “I have been there already.  I wished to spare a lady of your sensibility as much pain as possible; and so I went there myself, with Mr. Alfred Bond’s man of business, whom I happened to know; and I was grieved—­cut up, I may say, to the very heart’s core, to hear what he said; and he examined the document very closely too—­very closely; and, I assure you, spoke in the handsomest, I may say, the very handsomest manner of you, of your character, and usefulness, and generosity, and Christian qualities; he did indeed; but we have all our duties to perform in this world; paramount things are duties, Miss Bond, and his is a very painful one.”

“What need of all these words to state a simple matter.  Have you seen the will?” said Sarah Bond.

“I have.”

“Well, and what more is there to see, unless Mr. Alfred Bond denies his relative’s power to make a will?”