Her husband's interests were involved in her life; her death, should she die childless, must needs deprive him of all advantage from Jacob Nowell's wealth.

The only person to profit from such an event would be Percival Nowell; but he was far away, Gilbert believed, and completely ignorant of his reversionary interest in his father's property.

There was Medler the attorney, a man whom Gilbert had distrusted from the first.

It was just possible that the letter had been from him; yet most improbable that he should have asked Mrs.Holbrook to meet him out of doors, instead of coming to her at the Grange, or that she should have acceded to such a request, had he made it.
The whole affair was encompassed with mystery, and Gilbert Fenton's heart sank as he contemplated the task that lay before him.
"I shall spend a day or two in this neighbourhood before I return to town," he said to Ellen Carley presently; "there are inquiries that I should like to make with my own lips.

I shall be only going over old ground, I daresay, but it will be some satisfaction to me to do it for myself.