Time had dealt kindly with the lady, and what was deficient by nature
was supplied by art, for she was one of those who always paid the most
scrupulous attention to their toilette. If we were to describe her as
fat, fair, and forty, we should certainly wrong her. Fair and forty she
undoubtedly was, but fat she certainly was not. There was a slight
tendency to embonpoint, but this was relieved by her tall and not
ungraceful figure. She was what might be termed a decidedly handsome
woman. The corpulent lawyer had subsided into the sleek,
well-conditioned country gentleman. But there was at times a certain
restlessness of the eye, and a nervous twitching at the corners of the
mouth, which, to a keen observer, would indicate that he was not always
the quiet, self-possessed person that he would have his neighbors to
believe. The business on which they had met had been interrupted by the
entrance of a servant with a note to Sir Ralph, but, on his leaving the
room, the conversation was resumed by Mrs. Fraudhurst saying:

"I would much rather, Sir Ralph, that this subject be now discontinued,
and never again reverted to. The papers to which you allude are
perfectly safe in my hands, and I do not see that any good could accrue
by my transferring them to you, certainly none to myself, and it might
militate against me; for the great anxiety you evince to get possession
of the documents leads me to believe that you have some particular
object in view, something which does not appear or, the surface, and
which you desire should not come to my knowledge."

"But, my dear madam, you surely do not imagine that I have any other
motive in requesting you to hand over to my safe keeping the deed in
question than a natural desire to be quite certain that our mutual
interests should not be imperilled by any accidental circumstance that
might disclose the existence of any such document."