Neville sighed.
'Yes,' he said, 'it does seem hard. All the same, Kathie, I'm very glad you're getting to feel more that way. Philippa must be a nice little girl.'
'She's a very nice little girl,' said Kathie heartily. 'But she's funny—she's such a queer mixture of babyishness and old-for-her-age-ness.'
And then, as her own words recalled some of her conversation with Philippa, she suddenly exclaimed—
'Neville, are you sure, quite sure, that there's no chance of things coming right for papa?'
'What do you mean?' asked Neville in surprise.
'Do you think there's no chance of the will ever being found—or the paper telling where it is? The paper that should have been in the envelope?'
'I should think that's the least likely thing of all—a little sheet of paper! A will's rather a big thing—at least, generally. Mr. Fanshaw says it's written on parchment, and that even a short will is rather a bulky thing. That's why it seems so queer it should be lost. But the bit of paper could easily have been lost. Aunt Clotilda thinks that the blank bit was put in by mistake, you know, so most likely the right bit was torn up long ago. Mrs. Wynne was getting a little blind.'
'Still,' persisted Kathleen, 'as the will can't be found, I think they should have a hunt for the paper. You see, if the will's rather a big thing, it's pretty sure they'd have found it unless it had been really hidden. And, besides, Mrs. Wynne's meaning to leave directions where to find it, shows it wasn't anywhere to be found easily.'
'Yes, of course,' said Neville, surprised at Kathleen's reasoning powers.