"
"What! all the Penfold estates, papa, and the house and everything?"
"Yes, my dear. Everything, including the large sum of money that has
accumulated during the years Mr. Penfold has not been spending a third
of his income."
"Then if he meant that, papa, how is it that I am not going to be an
heiress?"
"Simply, my dear, because the will by which Mr. Penfold left the
property to you and Ralph is missing."
Mr. Withers then told the whole story of the loss of the will, the
search that had been made for it, and the strong grounds there were
for believing in the existence of some secret place in the Hall, and
that this place of concealment was known to Mr. Penfold's sisters.
"But they surely could never be so wicked as that, papa. They have
always seemed to like me--not very much, you know, because they
thought I wasn't quiet and ladylike enough. Still I don't think they
really disliked me."
"No, I think in their way they liked you, Mabel; and perhaps if Mr.
Penfold had half left his property to you, divided the other half
between them the will would have been found. But they certainly did
not like Ralph Conway. They disliked him partly no doubt for himself,
but principally on account of a wrong which I believe they once did to
his mother. Now, it is in human nature, Mabel, that you may forgive a
wrong done to you, but it is very hard to forgive a person you have
wronged.
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