Alfred laughed aloud.

’Of course you do, sister Adela!  Women won’t admit such things; that’s their aristocratic feeling!’

’And that is, too, worthless and a sham?  Will that, too, be done away with in the new age?’

’Oh, depend upon it!  When women are educated, they will take the world as it is, and decline to live on illusions.’

‘Then how glad I am to have been left without education!’

In the meantime a conversation of a very lively kind was in progress between Mrs. Waltham and her visitor, Mrs. Mewling.  The latter was a lady whose position much resembled Mrs. Waltham’s:  she inhabited a small house in the village street, and spent most of her time in going about to hear or to tell some new thing.  She came in this evening with a look presageful of news indeed.

‘I’ve been to Belwick to-day,’ she began, sitting very close to Mrs. Waltham, whose lap she kept touching as she spoke with excited fluency.  ’I’ve seen Mrs. Yottle.  My dear, what do you think she has told me?’

Mrs. Yottle was the wife of a legal gentleman who had been in Mr. Mutimer’s confidence.  Mrs. Waltham at once divined intelligence affecting the Eldons.

‘What?’ she asked eagerly.

’You’d never dream such a thing! what will come to pass!  An unthought-of possibility!’ She went on crescendo.  ’My dear Mrs. Waltham, Mr. Mutimer has left no will!’

It was as if an electric shock had passed from the tips of her fingers into her hearer’s frame.  Mrs. Waltham paled.

‘That cannot be true!’ she whispered, incapable of utterance above breath.

‘Oh, but there’s not a doubt of it!’ Knowing that the news would be particularly unpalatable to Mrs. Waltham, she proceeded to dwell upon it with dancing eyes.  ’Search bas been going on since the day of the death:  not a corner that hasn’t been rummaged, not a drawer that hasn’t been turned out, not a book in the library that hasn’t been shaken, not a wall that hasn’t been examined for secret doors!  Mr. Mutimer has died intestate!’

The other lady was mute.

’And shall I tell you how it came about?  Two days before his death, he had his will from Mr. Yottle, saying he wanted to make change—­ probably to execute a new will altogether.  My dear, he destroyed it, and death surprised him before he could make another.’

‘He wished to make changes?’

‘Ah!’ Mrs. Mewling drew out the exclamation, shaking her raised finger, pursing her lips.  ’And of that, too, I can tell you the reason.  Mr. Mutimer was anything but pleased with young Eldon.  That young man, let me tell you, has been conducting himself—­oh, shockingly!  Now you wouldn’t dream of repeating this?’

‘Certainly not.’