They could not bear to see strangers in the house they had once called their own, and took the only means suggested to their crazy old minds to rid the place of them." Mr.Robinson shook his head, evidently unconvinced.

The temptation was great to strengthen my side of the argument by a revelation of their real motive.

Once acquainted with the story of the missing bonds he could not fail to see the extreme probability that the two sisters, afflicted as they were with dementia, should wish to protect the wealth which was once so near their grasp, from the possibility of discovery by a stranger.

But I dared not take him quite yet into my full confidence.
Indeed, the situation did not demand it.

I had learned from him what I was most anxious to know, and was now in a position to forward my own projects without further aid from him.