CHAPTER III.
GOLD, THE INCORRUPTIBLE WITNESS.
Accipe Hoc.
After she had received the promise she desired from her sons--a promise burdened with so strange a condition--Madam Melcombe seemed to lose all the keenness and energy she had displayed at first.
She had desired above all things that honour should be shown to her in her death; her mind often occupied itself with strange interest and pertinacity on the details of her funeral.

All her wishes respecting it had long been known to her granddaughters, but her eldest surviving son had never been mentioned by name to them.

She always spoke of him as "the chief mourner." Suddenly, however, it appeared to have occurred to her that he might not be present at it, after all.

Everything must be risked to ascertain this.

She must write, she must entreat his presence.