"
"Yes, Dr. Lucas's incredulity made all the difference. How old is
Dr. Ruthven, John?"
"A little over forty, I should say. He may have been a pupil of my
uncle's."
After a little more consultation, it was decided that John should
write to Dr. Ruthven that his cousin had some papers of his father's
which he thought the Doctor might like to see, and that they would
bring them if he would make an appointment,
And so the Magnum Bonum was no longer a secret, a burden, and a
charge!
It was not easy to tell whether she who had so long been its
depositary felt the more lightened or disappointed. She had reckoned
more than she knew upon the honour of the discovery being connected
with the name of Brownlow, and she could not quite surmount the
feeling that Dr. Ruthven had somehow robbed her husband, though her
better sense accepted and admired the young men's argument that such
discoveries were common property, and that the benefit to the world
was the same.
Allen was a good deal struck when he understood the matter. He said
it explained a good deal to him which the others had been too young
to observe or remember both in the old home and afterwards.
"One wonderful part of it is how you kept the secret, and Janet too!"
he said. "And you must often have been sorely tempted.
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