Still I can't help being unhappy about it, and
lying awake at night and dreaming. No one can help their dreams."
"Your dreams are a mere repetition of your thoughts," Miss Penfold
said scornfully. "If you worry while you are awake, you will worry
while you are asleep. We have done nothing criminal. We have meddled
with no will, nor hidden one. We simply refuse to aid in the discovery
of an unjust document, and by so doing prevent a great wrong being
done to ourselves. To my mind the thing is perfectly simple, and my
conscience wholly acquits me of any wrong-doing."
Left to herself, Mrs. Conway took an earnest look round the room.
Somewhere no doubt within its limits lay the key of the secret that
would give wealth to Ralph. Where was it? The walls were completely
covered by bookshelves. These were handsomely carved, and dark with
age. One of the Penfolds had evidently been a bookworm, and had spared
no pains and expense in carrying out his hobby. The housemaid had said
that all the books had been removed, and that nothing had been found
behind them. Still there might well be some spring that had escaped
their notice. At any rate the ground must be gone over again.
Then the spring might lie among the carved work of the bookcases
themselves. This must be gone over inch by inch. That was evidently
the first work to be done.
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