“Did you make it out?”
“Yes.”
“Easily?”
“No; but I did make it out.”
“And can you remember the inscription?”
She hesitated; then she said doubtfully: “Perhaps.... I don’t know.... They were Latin words.”
“Latin words? Try to remember them.”
Clarice hesitated again; then she said: “But ought I to? If it’s such an important secret, ought I to reveal it?”
“You may, Clarice. I assure you you may,” he said earnestly. “You may, because the secret belongs to no one. No one in the world has any greater claim to know it than your father, or his friends, or myself. The secret belongs to the person who shall find it out, to the first passer-by who shall be able to profit by it.”
She yielded. What Ralph said must be right.