"It is
bad enough to go on as we have been doing these eight years. I only
want to know what is right and truth, and if this be a real will."
"Where did it come from?" asked the Colonel, coming to the critical
question. "Did you say you found it yourself, Caroline?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"In the old bureau."
"What! the one that stood in his study? You don't say so! I saw
Wakefield turn the whole thing out, and look for any secret drawer
before I would take any steps; I could have sworn that not the
thickness of that sheet of paper escaped us. I should like, if only
out of curiosity, to see where it was."
"Just as I said, mother," said Bobus; "there's no use in trying to
blink it to any one who knows the circumstances."
"You do not insinuate that there was any foul play!" said his uncle
hotly.
"I don't know what else it can be called," said Caroline, faintly;
"but please, Robert, and all the rest, don't expose her. Poor Janet
found the thing in the back of the bedside table-drawer, fancied it a
mere rough draft, and childlike, put it out of sight in the bureau,
where I lighted on it in looking for something else. Surely there is
no need to mention her?"
"Not if you do not contest the will," replied the Colonel, who looked
thunderstruck; "but if you did, it must all come out to exonerate us,
the executors, from shameful carelessness.
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