But he had left the room before she could prevent him. She moved to follow him, but reconsidered herself and turned back.
'Fiddlesticks!' she said angrily; 'nothing but fiddlesticks.'
'I am the sufferer,' grumbled Lambert; 'I shall be left in the cold. You and Philip take everything.'
'What I have serves to make you comfortable,' retorted the mother.
'That may be,' answered Lambert, 'but it is one thing to have money of one's own, and another thing to have to come to one's mammy for every penny, and to find that the mammy rarely has any pennies in her purse.'
'Hitherto I have been pinched in circumstances. It will be different now, Lamb, you will see.' After a pause, she added, 'Unless that meddlesome, vexatious prig, Philip, prove an obstruction.
Presently Philip returned.
'It is as I thought,' said he. 'The sealing-wax employed the second time is that now in the pen-tray on my uncle's desk; not only so, but his knife is there also, bearing on it the traces of exposure to fire. It was probably thrust into the flame of the gas to heat it so as to enable it to dissolve the wax off the seal.'
'No doubt about it,' said Mrs. Sidebottom; 'and this proves that Jeremiah cancelled his will shortly before his death. I should not be surprised if he did it the same night that he died, immediately before giving it to Salome.'
'The case is a most extraordinary one,' said Philip.