"I do not know in the least how the deed was done," continued Charlotte. "How such a crime could be committed and yet lie hidden all these years remains a terrible and mysterious thing to me. But that it was done, I can but use my own eyes in reading my grandfather's will to see."
"It was done easily enough, Miss Harman. They thought the other trustee was dead. Your father and his brother were false to their trust, and they never reckoned that Sandy Wilson would come back all alive and blooming one fine morning—Sandy, whose duty it is to see this great wrong put right."
"Yes, it is your duty," said Charlotte; and now, again, she grew very white; her eyes sought the ground and she was silent.
"It is my most plain duty," repeated Wilson, shuffling with his great feet as he walked by her side.
"I should like to know what steps you mean to take," continued Charlotte, suddenly raising her eyes to his face.
"Steps! Good gracious! young lady, I have not had time to go into the law of the thing. Besides, I promised to do nothing until we met again. But one thing is plain enough,and obvious enough—my niece, that young woman who might have been rich, but who is so poor—that young woman must come in for her own again. It is three-and-twenty years since her father died. She must receive from your father that money with all back interest for the last three and twenty years. That means a goodish bit of money I can tell you."
"I have no doubt it does," replied Charlotte. "Mrs. Home shall have it all."
"Well, I hope so, young lady, and soon, too. It seems to me she has had her share of poverty."
"She has had, as you say, her share of that evil. Mr. Wilson," again raising her eyes to his face, "I know Mrs. Home."
"You know her? You know my niece Charlotte personally? She did not tell me that."