“You know, of course, that Leila left no will,” he began. “At least, none to my knowledge, and I am certain she would have consulted me had she entertained any thought of making one. Death was farthest from her imagining, poor child! What she left is yours, of course, but we will have to comply with the law and advertise for heirs.”
Storm made a gesture of wearied impatience, and the attorney went on:
“There is something I must tell you, Norman. You were not my first visitor on Monday morning. Leila had been before you; she left only a few minutes before your arrival, but she had requested me to say nothing to you of her coming.”
“But why?” Storm stared.
“She came to consult me about a piece of property which she wanted to buy: that strip of land next your place here, over which you and Alpheus Jaffray have haggled and fought for years. She had gotten in the old man’s good graces somehow, and she believed that she could persuade him to sell it to her even though he was so violently antagonistic to you. I don’t mind telling you frankly that I advised against it, Norman. It would have taken all that she had left of her original capital, and I knew how yours was dwindling, but she won me over.” He paused and wiped his eyeglasses, clearing his throat suspiciously meanwhile. “She ordered me to keep the proposed transaction a secret from you, and I promised, but now it is only right that you should know. She left to go to Jaffray’s office, over in the Leicester Building.”
George Holworthy, who was hovering in the background, drew in his breath sharply, but Storm repeated with dogged insistence:
“Why should my wife have wanted to keep such a secret from me? I cannot understand it! She told me everything——” He paused involuntarily, biting his lip. There was one other thing she had not told him, had not confessed even at the last!
“You would not have been kept in ignorance long.” The attorney’s tone was pitying. “Have you forgotten what day to-morrow is?”
“ ‘To-morrow?’ ” Storm repeated blankly.
“Your birthday.”