Directed by her mother, she found the key and opened the desk. There was the will, and a glance assured Aldyth it was the one that Mr. Gould had drawn up for her uncle.
"How long is it since you found this?" Aldyth inquired.
"Oh, a long time ago," sobbed Mrs. Stanton. "Aldyth, don't look at me like that. It cannot matter so very much."
"I must know when," said Aldyth, firmly.
"Well, then, it was the day after I came to Wyndham. Mrs. Rogers gave me the keys, and I thought I would amuse myself by looking through the bureau. It was in a secret recess behind some drawers. Oh, I wish I had never found it! It made me miserable."
"Wish rather that you had never concealed it," cried Aldyth, unable to suppress her indignation. "How could you bear to go on living so for nearly a year, living in a home which does not belong to us, on an income to which we have no right, living like common thieves and swindlers?"
"Aldyth, how can you speak so!"
"I cannot gloss it over, mamma," said Aldyth, coldly. "It was an act of dishonesty, look at it how you will. Guy was kept out of his property. But there shall be an end to it."
"What are you going to do?" asked Mrs. Stanton, in a frightened tone, as Aldyth turned to quit the room.
"I shall send for Guy at once that he may hear what you have told me."