"I shall do as I please!"
Paul took two strides toward him.
"Shut it up!"
The cabinet was closed. At the same moment Mrs. Ritson came from the inner room. Paul turned on his heel.
"He is thinking of the will," said the elder brother. "Perhaps it is natural that he should distrust me; but when the time comes he is welcome to the half of everything, and ten thousand wills would hardly give him more."
Mrs. Ritson was strongly agitated. Her eyes, red with weeping, were aflame with expression.
"Paul, he is conscious," she cried in a voice that her anxiety could not subdue. "He is trying to speak. Where is the lawyer?"
Hugh had been moving toward the outer door.
"Conscious!" he repeated, and returned to the hearth.
"Send for Mr. Bonnithorne at once!" said Mrs. Ritson, addressing Hugh.