"Would what be well?"
"I am so harassed that I hardly know what I am saying. Would it be wise, do you think, if I were to pay him anything, so as to keep him quiet?"
"What; buy him off, you mean?"
"Well, yes;—if you call it so. Give him some sum of money in compensation for his land; and on the understanding, you know—," and then she paused.
"That depends on what he may have to sell," said Mr. Furnival, hardly daring to look at her.
"Ah; yes," said the widow. And then there was another pause.
"I do not think that that would be at all discreet," said Mr. Furnival. "After all, the chances are that it is all moonshine."
"You think so?"
"Yes; I cannot but think so. What can that man possibly have found among the old attorney's papers that may be injurious to your interests?"
"Ah! I do not know; I understand so little of these things. At the time they told me,—you told me that the law might possibly go against my boy's rights. It would have been bad then, but it would be ten times more dreadful now."