"What name did you say?" asked Mrs. Stanton, in such a quick, nervous tone that Aldyth looked at her in surprise.
"Gould is the name. He is a solicitor, and several years older than Clara. He is somehow connected with Essex, aunt says, and Clara Dawtrey told her that he had had some acquaintance with uncle."
"Uncle?" repeated Mrs. Stanton, feebly.
"Yes; Uncle Stephen, I mean. What is the matter, mamma? Do you know anything of this Mr. Gould?"
"Certainly not. How should I?" asked Mrs. Stanton, sharply, vexed with herself for betraying agitation.
"Something is the matter; you are feeling ill?" said Aldyth, rising, and looking anxiously at her mother's pallid, shrinking countenance.
"I am not well," said Mrs. Stanton, and a burst of tears relieved her. "My head aches. It is going to thunder, I believe. Yes, there must be thunder in the air."
"It does not feel to me like thunder-weather," said Aldyth, glancing at the sky.
But the storm Mrs. Stanton dreaded was of another kind. Gould. She could not mistake the name; it was too deeply impressed on her mind. She had read it on the hidden will. James Gould was the signature of one of the witnesses.