The next instant Mr. Harper rose. "She's gone into her room," said he. "Listen and you will hear her key click in the lock."
Ransom sank into a seat; Hazen had walked to the window. Presently he turned.
"I am convinced," said he. "I will not trouble you gentlemen further. Mr. Ransom, I condole with you upon your loss. My sister was a woman of uncommon gifts."
Mr. Ransom bowed. He had no words for this man at a moment of such extreme excitement. He did not even note the latent sting hidden in the other's seeming tribute to Georgian. But the lawyer did and Hazen perceived that he did, for pausing in his act of crossing the room, he leaned for a moment on the table with his eyes down, then quickly raising them remarked to that gentleman:
"I am going to leave by the midnight train for New York. To-morrow I shall be on the ocean. Will it be transgressing all rules of propriety for me to ask the purport of my sister's will? It is a serious matter to me, sir. If she has left me anything—"
"She has not," emphasized the lawyer.
A shadow darkened the disappointed man's brow. His wound swelled and his eyes gleamed ironically as he turned them upon Ransom.
Instantly that gentleman spoke.
"I have received but a moiety," said he. "You need not envy me the amount."
"Who has it then?" briskly demanded the startled man. "Who? who? She?"