“Laura Mason was present when her guardian told us this. It is only natural she should tell Launcelot Darrell what had happened.”
“She tells him everything; she would be sure to tell him that.”
“Precisely, and Mr. Darrell has not been slow to act upon the hint.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that Launcelot Darrell has been guilty of the baseness of bribing Mr. Lawford’s clerk, in order to find out the secret of the contents of that will.”
“How do you know this?”
“I discovered it by the merest chance. You owe me no praises, Eleanor. I begin to think that the science of detection is, after all, very weak and imperfect; and that the detective officer owes many of his greatest triumphs to patience, and a series of happy accidents. Yes, Eleanor, Mr. Launcelot Darrell’s eagerness, or avarice, whichever you will, would not suffer him to wait until his great-uncle’s death. He was determined to know the contents of that will; and, whatever the knowledge may have cost him, I fancy that he is scarcely satisfied with his bargain.”
“Why?”
“Because I believe that the Woodlands property is not left to him.”
There was a noise as of the movement of a heavy chair in the next room.