She could no longer keep silent. "It is very evident to me," she began, addressing herself directly to the lawyer, "that my helpless boy and I have been made the victims of a vile conspiracy. Whether you, sir, are in the secret of it or no I cannot say, but I give you warning that I shall lose no time in placing the affair in the hands of my solicitors, and that even if it cost me every shilling I have in the world, this foul attempt to defraud me and mine shall be unmasked, and the concocters of it brought to the bar of justice."
She spoke with studied quietude and without any trace of passion, but her hearers felt that in those smooth accents there was a hidden venom far more dangerous than any mere outburst of feminine anger would have been.
"A vile conspiracy!" burst forth the irate lawyer. "I would have you know, madame, that----"
She stopped him with an imperious gesture. "I have said all I wish to say, and no empty protestations on your part will avail anything. Roguery has been at work and must be unmasked. It is enough that you know my intentions."
She had risen while speaking, and now, after the slightest possible bow to Sir James and the others, she moved with her proudest and most dignified air towards the door, which Andry hastened to open for her, and so went her way, to the great relief of everybody there.
"Well, that caps everything!" ejaculated Mr. Staniforth. "A sweet temper to live with, eh, Jimmy?"
"Ay, but think of all the woman has lost, and by a turn of fortune's wheel the like of which I never heard tell of. No wonder she's put about; in her place who wouldn't be? Not but what, mind you, I consider the will a most unjust one, and I can't say I'm anything but glad that things have turned out as they have."
Mr. Delafosse had sat through the proceedings as mum as a mouse. He had all a collector's selfishness, and although he told himself how glad he was that, despite his late friend's unjust will, the rightful heir would succeed to the property, he could not help being very sorrowful on his own account. Under the changed circumstances of the case not a coin, not a medal, not a curio of any kind would come to him; and there were so many things in his friend's collection which his soul coveted! It was very, very sad, but there was no help for it.
When the others were gone Mr. Piljoy and Nell had a little confidential talk together.
"Never in the whole of my professional experience have I been so perplexed and mystified as by the events of this afternoon," said the lawyer. "I can't make head or tail of 'em, and that's a fact. Of course, when I get back I shall question Tew very closely about all that took place at the signing of the will, but I must say that I have very little hope of his being able to throw any fresh light on the affair. It's just as if we had all been made the victims of a conjurer's trick. Not but what, Miss Nell, I'm more than pleased at the way things have turned out, and I don't mind confessing to you that I was strongly opposed to the will as it stands, and went as far as I dared in the endeavor to persuade your uncle not to disinherit his grandson in toto. But you know the kind of man he was, how obstinate, and how utterly opposed to any suggestions from others which ran counter to his own views; indeed, he would hardly listen to me, and ended by telling me with an oath to mind my own business. On one point only do I feel sorry. If no other will turns up, of which I fail to see any likelihood, you, my dear Miss Nell, will be left out in the cold, for in that case, as I have remarked already, the son of Richard Cortelyon becomes the sole heir and legatee."