‘So do not I—I like you as you are, Maud,’ answered Tor. ‘But I am not going to let you make any important decision as to your future in a moment of heat. You must think the matter over dispassionately, and come calmly to your decision. But you see what the old fellow says about my duty. You are not to be a loser by your decision, Maud. A wish like that from a testator cannot be lightly set on one side. Remember that, Maud, when you weigh the matter in the balances.’
Tor knew quite well that the more Maud thought of a marriage with Lewis Belassis, the less she would like it, so he had no misgivings about inculcating this dispassionate consideration. He was doing the duty of an elder brother, without any fear that his own chances would suffer thereby. To be the dupe of a Belassis plot and to be the victim of his scheming would, he knew, be the more intolerable to her, the longer she looked at the matter.
But Maud broke in upon his thoughts with an imperious gesture.
‘Nonsense, Phil! I won’t have you do anything romantic and ridiculous. This is a big place, and you will want a lot of money to keep it up. As long as you are not married, I’ll live here and keep house for you; and when you marry, I’ll beg, borrow, or steal one of those dear little cottages at the end of the park, and live there on the remains of my fortune; and you shall keep a horse for me here, and ride out with me once or twice a week; and I’ll stay there an old maid, until somebody as nice as you turns up and makes love to me, and then I’ll marry him. But,’ and here she heaved a melodramatic sigh, ‘I’m afraid there is nobody else in the world half as nice as you.’
‘Of course not,’ he answered, smiling. ‘Now sit down, Maud, and let us be sensible for once. I do want to find out, if I can, why Mrs. Belassis cribbed that paper. She must have had a motive, and a strong one. She would not have done anything quite so suspicious without.’
‘That’s true,’ assented Maud; and she returned to a minute examination of the paper.
After turning it round and round several times, she proceeded to unfold it, and then her eyes opened wide with a look of comprehension.
‘Look here, Phil! She has been rubbing something out. There was something written in pencil on the inside. What was it?’
Tor looked over her shoulder, and saw plain traces of careful erasure. He pulled at his moustache, and whistled under his breath.
‘By Jove! So she has!’