"Not under that will. I was present when it was read, and I remember
it debarred 'both him and his heirs, forever.'"

"Poor Harold!" said Mr. Thornton, after a moment's silence; "he was
the elder son, was he not?"

"Yes, and his father's favorite. It broke the old man's heart to
disinherit him. He failed rapidly after that occurred, and he never
was the same towards Hugh. I always thought that accounted for
Hugh's selling the old place as he did; it had too many unpleasant
memories."

"Harold died soon after that unfortunate marriage, I believe."

"Yes; he learned too late the character of the woman he had married,
and after the death of their only child, he left her, and a few years
later was lost at sea."

"Well," continued Mr. Thornton, after a pause, "have you the remotest
idea as to who these possible claimants against the property may be?"

"Only the merest suspicion, as yet too vague even to mention; but I
think a day or two will probably enable me to determine whether I am
correct or not."

At that moment, Harry Scott, the private secretary, appeared, with a
message to the gentlemen from Hugh Mainwaring, to the effect that he
would like to have them join himself and Mr. Whitney in his library.